It was a smooth engineering event.There was no drama at all.The deck crew,some of them taking cell phone photos,almost seemed irrelevant as Northrop Grumman's X-47B was launched from the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush(CVN 47) off the coast of Virginia Tuesday.It wasn't Top Gun,yet it was an historic flight nonetheless as the first drone to be launched from a US aircraft carrier signaled the dawn of a new era in naval aviation.
This drone landed at nearby Naval Air Station Patuxent River Maryland-again without incident;but the next step for the Unmanned Combat Air System-Demonstrator,or UCAS-D, program will be to land one on the deck of a moving aircraft carrier later in the year.Eventually,the Navy will arm drones and be able to fly them anywhere in the world without the need for an air base in a distant land:a new degree of independence for unmanned air combat operations.
What is more,the X47-B doesn't need human controllers with a joystick.Its flight is totally computerised.
The Top Gun era is by no means over,however.The Navy's manned F-35 Lightning IIC Joint Strike Fighter program is barely off the ground and will be the standard of aircraft carrier combat operations for many decades into the future.Drones will be a valuable tool,but just one of a range of options for theater commanders.Land-based drones haven't replaced land-based US Air Force fighter or bomber aircraft in the Iraq and Afghan Wars.
Combat air drones are slated for deployment aboard carriers by 2020.
Northrop Grumman(NOC)
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