All language subtitles for Tomorrows.World.Today.S08E05.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
On "Tomorrow's World today,"
we explore the cutting-edge

advances that are shaping
four different worlds --

the world of inspiration,
where the wonders of

the natural world amaze
and inspire us.

The world of creation,
where ideas come to life from

traditional arts.

The world of innovation,
where ideas and inventions

move us all forward.

The world of production,
where innovations are

mass-produced to
improve our lives.

From Inventionland World
Headquarters, here's your host,

George Davison.

For more than a century,
the aerospace and defense

industry has been driven by
incredible advancements.

And one of the biggest has been
the rise of unmanned

aircraft systems.

During World War II,
the radio plane OQ-2 was

the first mass-produced unmanned
aircraft vehicle in

the United States.

And when you fast forward to
the iconic Predator drone that

was used during
the War on Terror,

well, you can just see

how much technology
has evolved.

What started as a simple remote
control drone for

reconnaissance has transformed
into a sophisticated machine

equipped with advanced
sensors, AI,

and autonomous capabilities.

These unmanned systems are
reshaping our military

strategies and changing how
we approach national security.

Today, unmanned aircraft
systems are playing a crucial

role in intelligence gathering,

surveillance,
and target acquisition,

allowing military forces to
operate more efficiently
and safely.

They can carry out missions in
dangerous environments without

putting a pilot at risk.

From real-time reconnaissance to
precision strikes,

unmanned aircraft are giving
military commanders better

situational awareness
and smarter

decision-making tools.

So how will these unmanned
aircraft systems continue to

shape military operations...

...and strategies?

Well, I'm gonna send Greg to
the world of innovation

to find out.

[upbeat music playing]

Cutting-edge technology is
taking flight right here

in San Diego, California.

I'm meeting with David
Alexander, the president of

General Atomics Aeronautical,
to explore their groundbreaking

unmanned aircraft systems,
and how they're redefining

what's possible in the air
today and in tomorrow's world.

-Hey, Dave.
-Hey, Greg.

-Welcome to General Atomics.
-Thank you very much.

I am super excited to be here
and learn about all

the different things that
you folks do here.

I'd kind of like to start with
a little bit of the history of

General Atomics.
How did it all get going?

Well, General Atomics was
founded in 1955, and in 1986,

the Blue family purchased
the company,

and built three main affiliates,

electromagnetics, energy,
and aeronautical system,

which is where
you're at here today.

Well, what sort of spurred
that diversification into

aeronautics
and unmanned aircraft?

Neal Blue and his brother,
Linden, they're visionaries to

start with, and they are
enthusiasts

with anything that flies.

So they really saw a vision of
surveillance aircraft for

the military with the advent of
GPS combined with low-cost,

long-endurance platforms.

[Greg]
And this was really the start
of the Predator system, right?

[Dave] That was the beginning
of the Predator.

That was the vision.

It was
a reconnaissance aircraft,

long-endurance,
and very affordable.

But now I'm sure over
the years, that has
really evolved.

[Dave]
It's an evolution of 30 years
of the making, and so we would

like to show
you everything we have.

Excellent.
Well, let's go take a look.

-Lead the way.
-Follow me, please.

So, Greg, here we are on
the integration floor in

the factory, and behind you is
the latest and greatest

MQ-9 Bravo.

It's the next
generation aircraft.

It's amazing looking.

One of the first things that
struck me as we walked in is

the size of it.

If you roll back like we were
talking before, MQ-1 started

as Predator -- small,
long-endurance aircraft,

using GPS.

When Predator really got put
into use, it was equipped with

SATCOM control, so you can
control it halfway around

the world, and combined
with weapons.

So now I have full motion
video, I have the weapons,

I have the control halfway
around the world, I can protect

the war fighters without
putting a pilot at risk.

Well what are some of
the capabilities that this

aircraft has that the original
Predator did not?

The original Predator was
55-foot wingspan,

maybe 2,500 pounds
take-off weight.

This is roughly 80-foot
wingspan, 13,500 pounds so

it's got way more capability to
carry the sensors that are

needed for all types of new
missions going forward,

not just full motion video
and weapons, you name it,

into maritime missions,

and so this aircraft
can fly 48 hours --

two days -- without landing,

and so it gives that long
persistence

with even more sensors
and that's really

the capability that
you're seeing here today.

It also provides the ability to
integrate into the airspace

with certification from NATO,
all-weather, de-ice,

lightning protection,
and safe separation so you can

fly in contested airspace
going forward.

[Greg]
This is approved for being
around general populace.

It's got the same sort of
safety measures in place that

any aircraft would, and it has
to adhere to that.

[Dave]
That has been our key, is to
make this platform that can

integrate into all airspaces,
not just combat, and it'll open

up new missions for us.

So, what I'd like to do is show
you and discuss some of

the other platforms that
we have along the way.

Sounds great.

[Greg] I'm in San Diego, where
I'm talking to David Alexander,

the president of General
Atomics, about the latest

innovations in
drone technology.

So Greg, I'd like to continue
the story about the MQ-9 Bravo,

the predecessor of this
aircraft that is displayed here

was the Reaper, MQ-9A Reaper.

And that started as
a commercial enterprise,

as a kind of a vision of
our owner

for telecommunications.

The Air Force said,
"Whoa, that's bigger and better

than MQ-1, we want that."

Bigger airplane,
more useful load, more capable.

And the key was turbine
machinery, a turboprop,

that was key.

So Predator was piston engine
with gasoline.

And then the Army saw that
and they said, "You know what,

"we would like the Grey Eagle
aircraft, but we want it with

diesel fuel," and that's really
what started the Grey Eagle

airplanes, about halfway in
between this airplane
and an MQ-1.

So the different
propulsion systems is kind of

what drove that.
What did it leap into next?

Well, next was what we call
Avenger, and that's a even

bigger aircraft, about a 20,000
pound gross takeoff weight jet.

So here we are using
a turbofan jet engine.

That has led into collaborative
combat aircraft

using jet engines that fly fast.

So the jet engines fly higher,
they fly faster, and it allows

us to get into a collaborative
combat program.

This autonomy, affordable mass,
is the future right now for us.

So the future of unmanned
aircraft is being created

right now.

-Right now, as we speak.
-Well, I've gotten to see some

things today that I never
thought I'd get to see,

so thank you very much, Dave.
-Thank you for coming.

Next, I met with Niki Johnson,
Vice President of

Government Affairs and Strategic
Communications, to discuss

flight hours, missions,

and international partnerships.

So Niki, I got to meet up with
Dave Alexander and learn

a little bit about the history
of General Atomics.

-And then he also showed me some
really impressive aircraft.
-Yeah.

From what I understand,
you've got some really

impressive numbers that go
along with that technology.

So we do.

We are approaching over eight
and a half million flight hours

across our fleet.

We've flown 556,000 missions
over 40 countries.

And our aircraft actually has
an aircraft availability rate

of over 90%.

So what that means is,
when the aircraft is needed,

they're ready to go.

And that aircraft availability
rate is actually one of

the highest for aircraft in
both the US Air Force

and US Army's inventories.

Well, how does that
translate internationally?

Are you partnered up
with any of our allies?

[Niki] So, we are.

There's always been a lot of
interest in our aircraft from

international partners
and allies, probably starting

with the MQ-9A Reaper during
the global War on Terror,

and now just providing
the situational awareness

and multidomain capabilities
that the aircraft offers.

We have over a dozen
international partners right

now, and we look forward to
expanding that, particularly as

we move into the
Collaborative Combat Aircraft,

or CCA, program.

Excellent, that's one of
the things that I'm actually

gonna talk with
Mike Atwood about next.

OK, I'll show you the way.

-Hi, Mike.
-Hey, Greg, good to see you.

-Good to see you, too.
-Yeah.

Well, Mike, I was just talking
with Niki, and we were

discussing General Atomics'
international involvement,

how many different countries
you service,

and it's pretty impressive.

We also talked a little bit
about CCA or collaborative

combat aircraft, and the XQ-67A
is sort of where that started.

Why was there a need for
that aircraft?

About six years ago,
we realized that we needed to

work on the next generation of
the Predator

and Reaper families.

And we realized we were at this
inflection point of kind of

stealth and cost and autonomy
and kind of mixing

those all together.

And so, in partnership with
the Air Force,

we began the initial program to
build the XQ-67 Alpha and ended

up inventing this concept
called genus species.

Somewhat like the automotive
industry, you have kind of one

skateboard, one chassis,
and you have different variants

on top of it.

And what was so interesting
about that is it allowed

the Air Force to essentially
not have to choose the mission

that they wanted to do.

Land attack, dog fighting,
defending tankers were all

possibilities from
one aircraft.

The other aspect that was
exciting about 67 Alpha was

the ability to go really fast.

So we wanted to prove to
the Air Force that we could,

in about two years or 24
months, bring a new aircraft to

the flight line.

And so, we proved to the Air
Force on a modest amount of

money that we could build
a genus species, and build

the offboard sensor station
variant of that

that did airborne sensing.

And that's really the first
time an aircraft like that has

existed, where you could take
that base model and apply

different technologies to it,
depending on what
the mission is.

Especially for
the Department of Defense.

I'd say the automotive industry
has done a little bit of that

with what you've seen with
different kind of platforms

and different SUVs and sedans
that would come off of it.

But really, it was the only way
to reach that level of

affordability for
the Department of Defense.

It's very innovative,
but inspired by what was

happening in
the automotive industry.

And I guess, as we look around
and see how quickly things are

changing in the world today,
it's important to have that be

able to be done very fast.
-Yeah, fast and cheap.

You know, we hear a lot about
combat mass and how do we bring

more assets to the fight
more quickly?

So, you know,
having adaptability

and affordability with a little
dose of stealth on the side is

something really special for
the Air Force to have.

So, very excited, and you know
the next couple of years,

you're gonna see this go
into production.

Well, I'd really like to get
a closer look at the technology

involved with this.
Can we see that?

Yeah, let's go check it out

[Greg] I'm at General Atomics
in San Diego, and I'm going
to meet

with Steve Fournier, Senior
Manager Additive Design

and Manufacturing Center of
Excellence, to talk about

additive manufacturing and 3D
computer-aided design models.

Well Greg welcome to
the Additive Manufacturing

Center of Excellence at
General Atomics.

In this particular
space, what we focus on

is metal additive.

So parts like this, made out of
very hard material called

titanium, starts their lives as
powder, right?

It's very thin powder being
melted using lasers,

and one layer at a time,
we build this
complex structure.

Wow, and now this is even
a little bit different than

what I'm seeing here.

So this is how it comes
out of the printer,

but this is how
it ends up.

How does it get from one
to the other?

So, all of this extra structure
are needed for

the printing process.

Now, at the end of the day,
a human being needs to get

the parts out of the printer
that looks like this,

and then start spending time
removing components like these

to really get to a final part
that looks like that.

And then also paint the parts
and qualify that for flight

before we put it
on the aircraft.

So even with all of the high
tech of the 3D printer,

the human factor is still
an important part

of the process.
-Absolutely.

So, does a 3D printer help
you get from, say, the drawing

board to the prototype and up
into the air more quickly than

you have been able to before?

Over the years, General Atomics
has learned how to design

things differently.

So, as a result,
we combine parts together so

we have less parts.

And so that allows us to go
from a design to a final

prototype into an aircraft
much faster.

So a part like this would have
maybe been three or four

different parts in the past,

and then would have to
be assembled.

Now, with the 3D printer,
it doesn't care.

It just builds
whatever you need.

[Steve] That's the beauty of
this process.

And as a result,
we have hundreds of parts on

our latest aircraft
in our fleet.

And that's the testament of
that this technology is

real today.
-[Greg] So this isn't
science fiction.

This is actually being used in
aircraft that are in

the air right now.

Absolutely, and it's getting
bigger and more structural

every day.

Steve, this is amazing,
but I really want to get

another look at that
3D printer.

Absolutely.

So my getting together with
Steve and seeing the 3D

printing technology in action
was really impressive.

But I'm curious as to how all
of that is going to be

integrated into the future of
the armed forces?

[Mike] Yeah, you know,
the modern fighting force has

to kind of recompose itself for
the changing

adversary condition.

As we've seen in the modern
conflicts, we can think the war

is gonna develop one way,
and then it's gonna shift

a different direction.

The quadcopters in
the conflicts that we see are

constantly
changing and adapting.

So part of the additive
technology allows us to have

that adaptable airframe for
that changing need,

that changing mission.

And right now, cost imposing,
almost economically imposing,

is a key tenant of
the war fight.

So bringing that cost down with
that genus species approach is

a key part, but more than that,
we need to address broad

fronts, long borders
of countries.

We can't have these soda straw
fighters going out.

We really have to put
the fighters behind this large

mass of unmanned airplanes to
get the combat advantage.

And I guess that's a really
great way to keep the pilots

out of harm's way.

You're talking about really
highly trained,

really extraordinarily capable
pilots that you then put into

a combat situation.

This is a great way to keep
them back from that.

Yeah, you know, it always
amazes me.

We take our best and brightest
and put them in the worst

possible position we can to be
right in the threat bubble.

Unmanned has this unique
attribute where we can pull

that man back in the battle
space, and we can essentially

put a large force structure of
unmanned airplanes

in front of that.

And that creates a very,
again, imposing strategy.

It creates a force-front where
the human can kind of

collaborate and augment.

[Greg]
And I would think that this is
a great additional asset for

the pilot themselves,
because even with all of

the modern technology
monitoring in a fighter jet,

they still really only see
what's in front of them.

Yes, when you bring these
disaggregated unmanned wingmen,

they can see the whole
battle space.

So the level of situational
awareness goes way up.

You know, another interesting
aspect of unmanned, is you can

actually forward base them.

A lot of people
don't think about

how the planes
actually get there.

The fighter pilots have to go
through this long range of

tankers to get there.

You know, they're coming from
their chow halls

and their bases, and their
barracks.

The unmanned airplanes are just
stored in hangars.

They can kind of leapfrog out
of jungles and smaller bases in

the Indo-Pacific region and meet
the fighters on the way there.

And that's how we get huge
amounts of combat mass that are

incredibly cost opposing.

And that becomes a fight that
your adversary just doesn't

want to engage in.

Yeah, the best way to win
the war is to never fight it in

the first place.

[Greg] I'm at General Atomics,
where I'm continuing

my conversation about unmanned
aircraft with Mike Atwood,

Vice President,
Advanced Programs.

So Mike, as we talk about these
autonomous aircraft and how

important they are becoming in
the rapidly evolving landscape

of warfare,

is AI and machine learning,
is that a big part of this?

We talked a lot about
the airplane and the technology

of the physical
product, but really,

the software and the autonomy
brain is the ultimate pillar of

what we need to do to bring
the capability to

the Air Force.

One of the biggest challenges
actually isn't writing the code

or the software,
but it's getting the humans,

the fighter pilots, to actually
have trust in the autonomy.

How do you communicate intent
to a machine?

Do you tell it to turn left
and right, or do you tell it to

go shoot that other airplane?

So, understanding those
boundaries of trust

and capability is really what
we're focused on right now.

[Greg] The future seems
pretty exciting.

[Mike]
Yeah, you know, in the next two
years, we're gonna see a lot of

that flight testing.

I'm really excited for
the general public to see

the growth in that.

It's much like
the autonomous car industry.

When it first came out, it was
very exciting and new,

but were we really
gonna use it?

Were we gonna trust
our families with it?

And I think we've now gotten to
a point over five or so years

where we do.

I think the unmanned airplane
and the autonomy is gonna

follow that same roadmap.

Excellent, Mike, thank
you very much.

Well, Dave is headed over
to Inventionland.

He's gonna meet up with George,
and I've gotta get back there

myself, so why don't you
show me out?

Let's go.

Hi, Dave, welcome
to Inventionland.

Hey, George, thanks for
having me.

Well, I couldn't wait for
you to get here.

My team was telling me all
these stories about

3D printing,
additive manufacturing.

I hope you could expand on it.

Well, we enjoyed having
him there.

We walked him through what
we call a national asset,

which is five million square
feet just dedicated to

unmanned aircraft.

You're not gonna find that
anywhere in the world.

You know, example is
the part behind us.

Yes.

That started out as a composite
hand layup part.

We looked at the cost of that
and said, "You know what?

There's a better way to do it,"
and there it is right
behind you.

It was done in 3D printing
or additive manufacturing,

and cut the cost by a third of
what it was before.

That's great.

So you saved costs and picked
up production, correct.

I saw some other images,
too, from your team,

and I thought,
five beautiful aircraft, Dave.

What you're seeing there is
what you couldn't give away

a long time ago,
and what changed the world to

really reconsider unmanned
aircraft was the aircraft right

in the center there
called Predator.

It's one of the top
10 aircraft in the world,

and it can deliver
over-the-horizon control

through satellite dish,
full motion video,

and weapons tied
together with long endurance.
-Wow.

Over the years we have
developed over

1,200 aircraft delivered to
customers, and at one point,

over 100 a year were being
delivered to

support the warfighter.

And that's with the series that
you see up there,

the Bigger Brother,
the Reaper, the Grey Eagle for

the Army down below,
our first jet, which is

the Avenger, High Fly Go Fast,
and then our latest

and greatest Sky Guardian,
Sea Guardian aircraft.

Again, huge investment,
forward-looking from our owners,

the Blue Brothers,
reinvesting into the company.

[George] Beautiful.

Beautiful.

And then I saw this image,
and I thought, "Now that looks

like the future, Dave."

Well, George, we're
really excited

about this airplane.

Now, you can see it's a flying
wing, but it can stay up three

times longer flying than other
flying wing that looks just

like it, due to a special hybrid
propulsion that we're working

on, and it's gonna be
a game changer.

So it's not a me-too flying
wing, this is very,

very different.

Dave, thanks for everything
you're doing.

Thank you.

All right, everybody,
that's another edition of

"Tomorrow's World Today."
We'll see you next time.

So, how about we check out some
trade secrets

in Inventionland?
-Excellent.

Alright.

[George] And remember,
tomorrow's world is where

inspiration and creation drive
innovation and production.