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
A surrogate Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (LDUUV) is submerged in the water in preparation for a test to demonstrate the capability of the Navy’s Common Control System (CCS) at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Keyport in Puget Sound, Wash. in December 2015. US Navy photo.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The director of unmanned warfare systems (OPNAV N99) will keep a particularly close eye on the Common Control System as it continues through development, after a demonstration last month proved that the system that was first tested on an unmanned air vehicle could also control an underwater vehicle, the director said Friday.
Rear Adm. Paul Grosklags, vice commander, Naval Air Systems Command, visits Sikorsky Aircraft Wednesday, April 27, 2011 for the celebration of the delivery of the 100th Sikorsky-built MH-60R Seahawk helicopter and the near completion of the 200th MH-60S Seahawk helicopter at the Military Helicopter Assembly Center at Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, Conn. Photo courtesy Connecticut Post.
Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags was nominated to take command of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the Defense Department announced. Read More
Northrop Grumman-built Triton unmanned aircraft system completed its first flight May 22, 2013, from the company’s manufacturing facility in Palmdale, Calif. Northrop Grumman Photo
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) announced it will begin negotiations on a second low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract for the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle. Read More
An E/A-18G Growler is directed to the catapult on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). US Navy Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A study that would determine if the Navy should acquire more Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft for a wider joint high-end war fighting requirements has been completed, Navy officials told USNI News on Wednesday. Read More
“Salty Dog 100,” an F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., lands on USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77) Apr. 20, 2015. The landing was part of the first sea trials for MAGIC CARPET, new flight control software and display symbology for F/A-18 aircraft designed to make carrier landings less demanding for Navy pilots. US Navy photo.
The Defense Department’s first Lab Day at the Pentagon last week celebrated both the innovative research taking place in the research community as well as military leadership’s new emphasis on pushing innovation across the services, those in attendance said. Read More
Northrop Grumman X-47B Salty Dog 502 during carrier tests in 2014. US Naval Institute Photo
The Senate Armed Services Committee — concerned with the Navy’s direction for its planned unmanned carrier aircraft program — wants the Pentagon to oversee development of two new carrier capable prototype unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and restart testing of the service’s two Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) in a combined $725 million effort, according to a summary of the SASC’s markup of the Fiscal Year 2016 defense authorization bill released Thursday evening. Read More
Undated photo of an aerial refueling test from a Marine Corps Bell-Boeing MV-22. U.S. Marine Corps Photo
The Navy has no immediate plans to explore using its planned fleet of V-22 Ospreys carrier onboard delivery aircraft to refuel its carrier aircraft, while the Marines are actively looking to include a tanking capability in its own tilt-rotor V-22s by 2017, service officials told USNI News on Monday. Read More
A Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrators (UCAS-D) during a 2014 carrier landing test. US Naval Institute Photo
Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) wants to keep the Navy’s two X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrators (UCAS-D) flying instead of sending the two unmanned vehicles to a museum or long term storage, according to a Thursday letter to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus obtained by USNI News. Read More
The following is an April 30, 2015 letter from Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus asking the Navy to consider additional testing for the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D). Read More
