Northrop Grumman’s X-47B is loaded Monday onboard the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) for a planned May, 14 2013 catapult launch. US Navy Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Navy wants to continue to tweak what it will call the Stingray — its first carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle. Read More
An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator sits on an aircraft elevator of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) on May 6, 2013. US Navy Photo
The Navy wants to change the Pentagon imposed designation of its RAQ-25 carrier-based unmanned aerial tanker with its own nom-de-drone – Stingray. Read More
X-47B conducts its first night flight April 10 over Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. on April, 10 2014. US Navy Photo
SAN DIEGO — The head of Naval Air Systems Command said the effort to build the Navy’s first unmanned aerial vehicle to operate with the carrier air wing would be a leaner process than what was planned for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program. Read More
An artist’s conception of Boeing’s UCLASS offering taken as part of the company’s display at the U.S. Navy League 2015 Sea Air Space Exposition. US Naval Institute Photo
This post has been updated to include additional comments from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Naval Air Systems Command is set to release a new draft request for proposal for its unmanned aerial refueling tanker to industry later this year, USNI News has learned. Read More
X-47B taking on fuel from a tanker on April 22, 2015. US Navy Photo
The Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) effort is being retooled as primarily a carrier-based unmanned aerial refueling platform — one of several Pentagon directed naval aviation mandates in the service’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget submission. Read More
The nominee for the Navy’s number two civilian post told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that she shares its concerns with the cost overruns and delays in the delivery of the Ford–class nuclear aircraft carrier and was “open to all options” in considering alternatives. Read More
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (Nov. 17, 2013) Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) transits the James River during the ships launch and transit to Newport News Shipyard pier three for the final stages of construction and testing. The Ford was christened Nov. 9, 2013, and is currently under construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipyard (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Aidan P. Campbell/Released)
The Navy will begin testing manned airplanes on its Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) at a New Jersey test site in February and will complete testing on all type/model/series in the months after the new carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is delivered, Navy officials said on Thursday. Read More
The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) floats in the James River in 2013. Newport News Shipbuilding Photo
Sea trials for the first-in-class nuclear carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) could be pushed back up to six to eight weeks due to a slip in the testing schedule, the Navy announced late Tuesday. Read More
The U.S. Navy is struggling with an undersized fleet, and is being pushed to its breaking point. The facts are clear. The carrier force is below the mandate required by law. Our ships are going on deployments of ever increasing lengths, all longer than planned—as long as 10 months. Because of backlogs of ship maintenance, unplanned repairs are popping up with increasing frequency stretching out the ships’ repair periods. Training periods are now being cut by three-fourths of their planned time. Read More
An artist’s conception of INS Vikrant. Indian Navy Image
The head of India’s Western Naval Command led a delegation of aircraft carrier designers to meet with U.S. officials in Washington, D.C. and visit under-construction carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), according to Indian press reports. Read More
