The various milestones of the U.S. Navy in entering the domain of Unmanned Combat Aerial Systems, UCAS, were characterized by technological breakthroughs and strategic shifts. Core to all these would be the Northrop Grumman X-47B and the Boeing X-45, both vehicles proving central in defining the future of military drone technology.
The X-47B, whose call signs were Salty Dog 501 and Salty Dog 502, was retired in April 2015. The UAVs were the first significant advancements in UCAS and performed numerous firsts, like an autonomous landing on an aircraft carrier and midair refueling. The X-47B’s development was based upon a DARPA program initiated in August 1997 to develop a much-needed UCAS with greatly enhanced survivability in heavily contested airspace.
The 2000 matching program by the U.S. Navy with DARPA was for a carrier-based reconnaissance and attack technology demonstrator. Northrop Grumman came up with the ambitious idea of creating the X-47B as demands by the Navy were heightening for a drone with a payload capacity of 4,000 pounds and a radius of 650 nautical miles to loiter up to 12 hours. Tests of the X-47B began flying in 2011, dedicated to a range of shipboard and noncombat aerial operations that included deck handling, launch, recovery, and refueling in the air.
While there have been several successes with this program, no weapons or ISR tests were conducted with the X-47B, which begs questions about survivability in a contested environment and for the mission envelope. Focus soon shifted to the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program, intended to advance the technology developed with the X-47B with the production of a fully autonomous carrier air group ISR and strike aircraft.
Meanwhile, Boeing was developing its X-45 for the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System program. First flying in May 2002, the swept-wing stealthy design X-45A had autonomously flown multiple vehicles. The next generation, the X-45C, was larger and heavier, and it would be able to carry state-of-the-art precision-guided munitions, having an arrowhead-shaped profile quite distinct.
The reviving of the X-45C by Boeing through its program, the Phantom Ray, was a further testament to its commitment to the cause of popularizing UCAS technologies. It would, in effect, be a fighter-sized experimental unmanned aircraft that would become indispensable in missions related to ISR, suppression of enemy air defenses, electronic attack, strike, and autonomous aerial refueling. A maiden flight for the Phantom Ray was expected by early 2011 and would be followed by a series of demonstration tests designed to validate its capabilities.
The U.S. Navy will continue its UCAS exploration with the MQ-25A “Stingray,” an unmanned tanker scheduled for operationalization in 2023. As stated by Admiral Jonathan Greenert, it is important to integrate the MQ-25A into carrier operations and further investigate the potential of the platform for performing, in addition to ISR, strike missions.
UCAS is the future of the Navy. Based on past achievements of the X-47B, X-45, and Phantom Ray programs, a new generation of unmanned combat aircraft can now be realized, to revolutionize military aviation and amazingly enhance Navy capabilities in an increasingly complex global security environment.