MILTECH - Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) and the United States Navy have conducted the first flight of the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstration aircraft.
90 years ago, in the fall of 1922, the pilots of the United States Navy landed America's first airplane. (Well, the British did it first). In a few weeks, the Navy's aircraft will make history again - except this time, there won't be a pilot. Northrop Grumman built the X-47B, aka UCAS (unmanned aerial combat system), aiming to be the first robotic aircraft, aka UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to take off and land on planes. On Friday, as the video shows, he went further ahead than before using what the Navy calls a "gear hold," a complex system of cables, brakes and dampers. In this case, the ground test facility at Naval Air Station Patuxent River — which pilots use to bring their aircraft to the final warm-up before taking off for a short time in back the airplane and fall into the water. For humans, learning how to get into a carrier with a rope hook is one of the most demanding things that can be done, with stress levels in some cases higher than normal combat. Teaching a robot how to do it is an adventure. But of course the real test will come on the actual carrier.
The Navy actually put the X-47B aboard the aircraft carrier, the USS Truman, last December, but that was only to demonstrate the robot's ability to navigate complex and crowded traffic. and an empty airport. The big day will come later this month when he arrives on board. "When that happens, people will say 'wow,'" Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief operating officer, told me recently. "There will be a lot of pictures, and I think that will start a conversation."
From Greenert's point of view, the X-47B's advantage is not only that it is a beautiful technology. It is an example of a large-scale aircraft called UCLASS (Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System) that will provide long-range bombing capabilities of current aircraft carriers, such as F / A-18E / F and F-35C, do not. (The Navy plans to issue a UCLASS RFP to defense contractors this summer). This area, in turn, is a very important part of the future "AirSea Battle" strategy against high-tech adversaries like, say, China. So while the drone may be gee-whiz now, it's the start of something serious.
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