X-47B taking on fuel from a tanker on April 22, 2015. US Navy Photo
The Navy successfully tested autonomous aerial refueling for the first time with its Northrop Grumman X-47B test unmanned aerial vehicle on Wednesday, marking the end of the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Air Vehicle demonstrator (UCAS-D) program, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) told USNI News shortly after the aircraft landed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Read More
A X-47B during a March 2015 test flight. US Navy Photo
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — There are no plans to extend the testing for its Unmanned Carrier Air Vehicle demonstrator (UCAS-D) program after this month’s planned autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) tests, Naval Air Systems Command officials said on Tuesday. Read More
Northrop Grumman’s X-47B flies over USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) on May 14, 2013. US Naval Institute Photo
A test to prove an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be refueled in flight could happen by the end of this month, officials with Naval Air Systems Command told USNI News on Monday. Read More
Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air Systems Demonstration (UCAS-D). US Navy Photo
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) is calling on the Department of Defense and the Navy to develop a stealthy and lethal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) aircraft, according to a Tuesday letter to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter obtained by USNI News. Read More
F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to the Knighthawks of Strike Fighter Attack Squadron (VFA) 136 lands on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) on Jan. 30, 2015. US Navy Photo
CRYSTAL CITY, VA. — The head of the Navy’s aviation system command is working on ways to bring the tenants of the Pentagon’s larger push for open architecture computer systems to the development of new aircraft as well as bringing more open capability to existing systems. Read More
An artist’s concept of a proposed Lockheed Martin UCLASS design. Lockheed Martin Image
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – The first operational unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to be used on the Navy’s aircraft carriers needs to be developed with a “joint perspective,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said during a Keynote speech at WEST 2015 on Tuesday. Read More
X-47B tail number 501 flies over USS Theodore Roosevelt on Aug. 17, 2014. US Naval Institute Photo
PENTAGON – The Navy has pushed its planned fielding date for its carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from 2020 to 2022 or 2023, a Navy budget official told reporters in a late Monday afternoon briefing on the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request to Congress. Read More
An artist’s concept of the Lockheed Martin’s bid for the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS). Lockheed Martin Image
A previous version of this post misstated the chairman of the Defense Acquisition Board. It is Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) Frank Kendall, not vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. James “Sandy” Winnefeld. Winnefeld chairs the Pentagon’s Joint Requirements Oversight Council.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The review of the Pentagon’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) portfolio that stalled the acquisition of the Navy’s first operational carrier-based UAV has completed its early phase, the Navy’s chief acquisition official said on Wednesday. Read More
X-47B UCAS. Northrop Grumman Photo
If the Navy can get the resources, it plans to test an aerial refueling capability on its experimental carrier-launched unmanned aerial vehicle, the X-47B, as early as next year, Naval Air Systems Command officials told USNI News on Tuesday. Read More
X-47B tail number 501 flies over USS Theodore Roosevelt on Aug. 17, 2014. US Naval Institute Photo
The 2015 compromise defense bill, released on Wednesday, imposes restrictions on funding for the Navy’s planned production carrier-launched unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over concerns the platform would lack sufficient stealth, survivability and weapons payload, according to the bill’s language. Read More
