An X-47B during a March 2015 test flight. US Navy Photo
Northrop Grumman will not compete to build the service’s MQ-25A Stingray aerial refueling unmanned aerial vehicle despite being the developer of the test platform that proved a UAV could take off and land from an aircraft carrier. Read More
Artist’s Concept of the General Atomics MQ-25 Stingray. GA Image used with permission
Naval Air Systems Command has quietly released the final request for proposals to industry for the unmanned MQ-25 Stingray aerial tanker, USNI News has learned. Read More
Boeing image of the company’s MQ-25A Stingray bid. USNI News Photo
The inclusion of the unmanned MQ-25 Stingray aerial tanker into the U.S. carrier air wing could increase the effective strike range of the strike fighters aboard aircraft carriers by up to 400 nautical miles, the commander of Naval Air Forces told U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings. Read More
Boeing image of the company’s MQ-25A Stingray bid. USNI News Photo
The Navy issued its latest draft request for proposals for what will be the service’s first operational carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle, U.S. Navy officials confirmed to USNI News on Thursday. 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 tail number 501 flies over USS Theodore Roosevelt on Aug. 17, 2014. US Naval Institute Photo
“Our young people are really concerned about the ethical and moral use” of unmanned systems in combat, the Navy’s first deputy assistant secretary for unmanned systems told a key House subcommittee Thursday. Read More
Salty Dog 502 as part of an April 11, 2015 non-contact test with a refueling tanker. The first successful autonomous refueling occurred on April 22, 2015. US Navy Photo
The House and Senate armed services committees came to an agreement on the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2016, releasing a $604.2-billion authorization plan after months of hashing out nearly 900 discrepancies between the bills. Read More
The following is the Aug. 3, 2015 Congressional Research Service report, History of the Navy UCLASS Program Requirements: In Brief. Read More
The following is the June 5, 2015 memo from Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert and U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford on accelerating artificial intelligence development in the Department of the Navy. Read More
