X-47B Deploys to Aircraft Carrier
The X-47, an experimental unmanned “combat air system,” has been hoisted onto the USS Truman for “carrier deck handling tests.” Presumably, these tests do not yet include carrier launches or landings (though a catapult launch on a land-based site has already occurred, complete with PR video).
Current generation unmanned vehicles essentially began their lives as surveillance assets and were modified to carry weapons. The progeny of the X-47 will be combat attack vehicles by design, and may even have autonomous capabilities.
Observers will be forgiven if their first thought is “Skynet.”
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