So easy, even a robot can do it:
The US Navy reported that its X-47B — a demonstrator for unmanned combat air vehicle technology — successfully completed autonomous refueling.
Aerial Refueling (Air-to-Air Refueling) (AAR) is a notoriously Read more
For the first time ever, a fighter jet-sized drone piloted entirely by computer landed on a modern Read more
Just days after its first carrier launch, the Navy’s X-47B, the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D), successfully did a touch and go on the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) last week.
Don Blottenberger, UCAS-D Deputy Program manager, commented, “This landing, rubber hitting deck, is extremely fulfilling for the team and is the culmination of years of relative navigation development. Now, we are set to demonstrate the final pieces of the demonstration.”
But does it wear dogtags when it plays volleyball on the beach?
(That’s a Top Gun reference, for those UPT students who weren’t even born when that movie came out…)
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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.”
The X-47B (previously noted) executed a successful first flight at Edwards AFB, California last week.
The X-47 is a Navy/Northrop technology demonstrator intended to test (and demonstrate) the ability of an unmanned aircraft to land on an aircraft carrier. The aircraft somewhat resembles a miniature B-2, and is ultimately intended to portend the UCAV, or Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle — the ability to conduct autonomous deep strike missions.
The Navy Times has an article and a video of the flight.