ULTRA: Unmanned Long-Endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft

https://www.airforce-technology.com/pro ... ultra-usa/

Sure looks a lot like a Diamond DA40...

RAS

Sure looks like a Stemme…

It needs 80 hrs endurance. At 70 kts, it's a day over and a day to get back.

It's useful to see the entire paragraph Ike spoke to understand the context of the 2nd half. The complex he spoke of is critical to Defence. He was, IMO, warning more about Congress manipulating it for political gain than the industry itself. In WW-II we were the arsenal of democracy, these days we're one of many and I think building what we can here at home for our defence is better than supporting some other country and the perils of brittle supply chains.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be might, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. . . . American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

A more relevant portion IMHO.

"In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society."

In other words there is a lot of need for good judgment to be exercised by folks at all levels of government, academia, and industry. If everyone simply focuses on milking the taxpayers for all they’re worth, we are poorly served. Conversely, we would also be poorly served by parsimonious government that completely starved academia and industry of resources needed to advance technology for military purposes.

LOL