Navy attempts 1st unmanned aircraft landing

[spuwho]

Navy to attempt 1st unmanned aircraft landing aboard USS George H.W. Bush in Atlantic Ocean



By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, July 10, 6:11 AM

NORFOLK, Va. â€" The Navy will attempt to land a drone the size of a fighter jet aboard an aircraft carrier for the first time Wednesday, showcasing the military’s capability to have a computer program perform one of the most difficult tasks a pilot is asked to do.

If all goes as planned, a successful landing of the X-47B experimental aircraft will mean the Navy can move forward with its plans to develop another unmanned aircraft that will join the fleet alongside traditional airplanes to provide around-the-clock surveillance while also possessing a strike capability. The aircraft’s success would pave the way for the U.S. to launch unmanned aircraft without the need to obtain permission from other countries to use their bases.

The X-47B experimental aircraft will take off from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland before approaching the USS George H.W. Bush, which is operating off the coast of Virginia. The drone will try to land by deploying a tailhook that will catch a wire aboard the ship and bring it to a quick stop, just like normal fighter jets do. The maneuver is known as an arrested landing and has previously only been done by the drone on land at Patuxent River. Landing on a ship that is constantly moving while navigating through turbulent air behind the aircraft carrier is seen as a more difficult maneuver.

“Your grandchildren and great grandchildren and mine will be reading about this historic event in their history books. This is not trivial, nor is it something that came lightly,” said Rear Adm. Mat Winter, the Navy’s program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons.

Just like a traditional airplane, if the landing has to be called off for any reason at the last second, it can perform a touch-and-go maneuver. It performed nine such maneuvers in May, when it also took off from an aircraft carrier for the first time.

The X-47B will never be put into operational use, but it will help Navy officials develop future carrier-based drones. Those drones could begin operating by 2020, according to Winter. Four companies are expected to compete for a contract to design the future unmanned aircraft, which will be awarded in Fiscal Year 2014.

The two experimental aircrafts that have been built for the first round of testing will be retired and placed in museums at Patuxent River and at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.

The move to expand the capabilities of the nation’s drones comes amid growing criticism of America’s use of Predators and Reapers to gather intelligence and carry out lethal missile attacks against terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

Critics in the U.S. and abroad have charged that drone strikes cause widespread civilian deaths and are conducted with inadequate oversight. Still, defense analysts say drones are the future of warfare.

The X-47B is far bigger than the Predator, has three times the range and can be programmed to carry out missions with no human intervention, the Navy said.

While the X-47B isn’t a stealth aircraft, it was designed with the low profile of one. That will help in the development of future stealth drones, which would be valuable as the military changes its focus from the Middle East to the Pacific, where a number of countries’ air defenses are a lot stronger than Afghanistan’s.

The X-47B has a wingspan of about 62 feet and weighs 14,000 pounds, versus nearly 49 feet and about 1,100 pounds for the Predator.

While Predators are typically piloted via remote control by someone in the U.S., the X-47B relies only on computer programs to tell it where to fly unless a human operator needs to step in. The Navy says the aircraft relies on precision GPS navigation, a high-integrity network connection and advanced flight control software to guide itself.

Developed by Northrop Grumman under a 2007 contract at a cost of $1.4 billion, the X-47B is capable of carrying weapons and is designed to be the forerunner for a drone program that will provide around-the-clock intelligence, surveillance and targeting, according to the Navy, which has been giving updates on the project over the past few years.

“It has taken several years of software development, thousands of simulated landings in high fidelity labs and many hours of flight test in the Patuxent River landing pattern to prove this aircraft is up for the challenge,” Capt. Jaime Engdahl, program manager for the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System wrote in a blog post. “Today X-47B is ready!”

The X-47B can reach an altitude of more than 40,000 feet and has a range of more than 2,100 nautical miles, versus 675 for the Predator. The Navy plans to show the drone can be refueled in flight, which would give it even greater range.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/navy-to-attempt-1st-unmanned-aircraft-landing-aboard-uss-george-hw-bush-in-atlantic-ocean/2013/07/10/2a7dd19c-e944-11e2-818e-aa29e855f3ab_story.html

[I-10east]

Boy, that's a big ass UAV! It looks a lil like a mini F-117 Nighthawk. Here's a short vid below showing the takeoff.

www.defensenews.com/article/20130514/DEFREG02/305140016/US-Navy-Successfully-Launches-UAV-From-Aircraft-Carrier

[Overstreet]

X-47B......62 ft wing span extended  30 ft retracted, 44,000# gross take off weight....

Note.... there is plans for one with 172 ft wing span.

Air Force has been flying a recon bird, RQ4, with a 130ft wing span and 32,000 # take off weight.... 

[spuwho]

The landing was successful.

Unmanned jet lands on aircraft carrier in aviation milestone

By David Alexander, Reuters
Posted:   07/10/2013 07:56:58 PM EDT
   

ABOARD THE USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH â€" An unmanned U.S. jet carried out a maneuver on Wednesday long considered the most challenging in naval aviation - landing aboard an aircraft carrier - in a milestone that lifted expectations about basing drones with reconnaissance and strike capabilities on ships.
A Northrop Grumman X-47B aircraft nicknamed "Salty Dog 502" slipped out of a cloudy sky off the Virginia coast after a flight from Patuxent River Naval Air Station and dropped its tailhook to snag an arresting cable on the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush sailing in the Atlantic Ocean.
"It's not often that you get a chance to see the future, but that's what we got to do today," said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who witnessed the landing and likened it to the first manned aircraft landing on a carrier a century ago.
The achievement came as the Navy mulls the role that new ship-carried drones may play in the future for the U.S. military, while some experts question whether these unmanned aircraft are needed by the Navy at all.
The Salty Dog is one of two experimental X-47B aircraft built by Northrop Grumman as part of a program to test the feasibility of integrating unmanned aircraft into carrier operations, which program director Rear Admiral Mat Winter called "the most dynamic and demanding" environment in the Navy.
The X-47Bs will
be retired to flight museums in Florida and Maryland after completing a minimum of three arrested landings aboard a carrier in the coming week, officials said.
In their place, the Navy has started the follow-on UCLASS program to design and build unmanned reconnaissance and strike aircraft to be deployed aboard carriers in the coming three to six years.
The start of the UCLASS program with a Navy request for proposed designs from Northrop, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics earlier this month has touched off a debate over exactly what the new drone should be and what missions it should take on.
With a stealthy bat-wing air frame, a 2,000-mile range and the ability to carry the equivalent of two precision-guided bombs, the X-47B raised the prospects of a long-range, radar-evading, unmanned reconnaissance and strike aircraft.
A carrier-based drone with those capabilities could be used to counter countries like China and Iran that have been developing missiles and other weapons aimed at forcing the U.S. Navy to operate far from shore in a conflict.
'TYRANNOSAURUS REX ARMS'
Peter Singer, director of the Center for 21st Century Security at the Brookings Institution think tank, likened the threat to "facing a boxer with really long arms when you've got little Tyrannosaurus Rex arms."
"The idea is you could utilize the UCLASS (carrier drone program) to extend your reach," he said.
The Navy's request for proposed designs appeared less ambitious than some analysts had expected. Rather than seeking proposals for a radar-evading jet with a robust strike capability, the request called for a long-range reconnaissance aircraft able to stay on station for extended periods, Navy officials said.
With the focus on affordability, the drone would not necessarily be able to evade radar - potentially leaving it vulnerable to enemy fire - and it would have only a light attack capability.
Some experts say it is not clear that the Navy needs a carrier-based drone.
They note that such an aircraft's main strength is the ability to remain over a target area for long periods of time looking for potential threats like mobile missile launchers. Land-based drones can provide that capability as effectively as sea-based ones, they say.
"When it comes to operating an unmanned aircraft from carrier decks, the Navy seems to be ambivalent about the whole idea," said Loren Thompson, a defense expert at the Lexington Institute think tank.
He said the Navy needs to conduct a rigorous assessment to see what UCLASS drones would bring to the fleet that cannot be accomplished with manned aircraft or land-based drones.
"Can we fly drones off of aircraft carriers? Yes we can. Is there a good reason for doing so? That's not as clear," Thompson said.