Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The U.S. Navy's Unmanned X-47B Continues At-Sea Maneuvers Aboard The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71)

The X-47B comes in for an arrested landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) on November 9, 2013. (Credit: US Navy photo by Mass Comm. Spec. Seaman Anthony N. Hilkowski)

The Navy's Unmanned X-47B Flies Again -- CNet

Picking up where it left off during the summer, the futuristic aircraft carries out at-sea maneuvers on and around its third aircraft carrier.

The experimental, unmanned X-47B continues to get its sea legs.

The US Navy over the weekend resumed at-sea testing of the X-47B, also known as the Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D), which has put a gleam in the Pentagon's eye about someday equipping carrier strike forces with autonomous aircraft. Before that day comes, the Navy needs to be very, very sure that robo-planes can work smoothly and safely amid all the other activity on and around an aircraft carrier's flight deck.

In an unspecified number of 45-minute flights, the Northrop Grumman-built X-47B performed catapult launches and arrested landings and carried out "precise" touch-and-go maneuvers with the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), now the third carrier that has participated in testing of the futuristic aircraft. The aircraft flies autonomously, according to preprogrammed flight plans, though its maneuvers were monitored by operators equipped with a portable command and control unit.

Read more ....

More News On The X47B

X-47B UCAS Successfully Tested Aboard USS Theodore -- Defense World
Navy tests drone’s ability to integrate with aircraft carrier environment -- Washington Post/AP
The Navy Takes Its Experimental Drone Program To The Next Level -- SFGate/Business Insider
UFO? No, it's America's £1bn super-drone: Latest unmanned aircraft can fly at subsonic speeds while using GPS to guide itself through the sky -- Daily Mail

No comments: