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X-47B UCAS-D gets first trap at NAS Pax River | Video

707guy said:
I haven't heard if the controllers for these things will be ashore somewhere in a box or will they be on the boat? I know the guys on deck were doing the taxiing but who flys the thing and from where?
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You folks DO KNOW…I hope…that the X47B-UCAS-D is just THAT, right:
X = "Experimental"
D = "Demonstrator"

I don't know if the final RFP has been released yet, but am reliably informed that at least 4 Industry competitors (you can probably name them yourselves…) all have their each and own DIVERSE visions of how to address requirements (objective and threshold, with concomitant trade-space), what they will propose, and what it may finally look like. Will there be a "fly-off"…or just award on Powerpoint? And yet I've heard some opine that these thingies will be operational in 2-4 years.

The Devil will ever be in "the Details"…stealth trade-offs, range/endurance thresholds, SENSOR/WEAPONS (?) PAYLOADS, control schema, data-transfer/downlink capabilities, maintenance and sustainment issues…organizational, I-Level and depot/OEM, required CVN SHIPALTs to support, squadron/det manning, rating, NEC and NOBC issues...well, you get the idea. Need I mention reduced DoN funding/procurement accounts in the foreseeable future?

This is undoubtedly a navigable road…but I'm guessing it'll be longer and rockier than the cheerleading squad currently can imagine. Again…I'm with the "Air Boss"…"this is a PIXEL on what MAY become the future picture of Naval Aviation".

Heck, it only took the Navy about a decade to take the proven USAF TISEO camera system used on the F-4E and adapt/test/integrate/install/field it in the Tomcat as the TCS system. And that was just a two-FOV B/W video camera….you get the idea.

Just my $.02.
 
BusyBee604 said:
Or what happens when the controlling CPU's R-2574 burns out; while C-2813 shorts out simultaneously (or their ultra hi-tech counterparts)... on close final to jmc's pitching deck?:eek::p
BzB
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I'm just praying the control station doesn't go through NMCI!
 
Renegade One said:
You folks DO KNOW…I hope…that the X47B-UCAS-D is just THAT, right:
X = "Experimental"
D = "Demonstrator"
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True - but I'm guessing someone has put some thought into where/who is going to operate it. I'm sure it will all come out in the wash - will be interesting to see how it is employed.
 
707guy said:
I'm sure it will all come out in the wash - will be interesting to see how it is employed.
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So, a CONOPs already exists?

Maybe I'll add that to my list of the required "future wash cycles".

Hey, I get it…nothing happens overnight, and this, too, will probably get all figured out. I'm just skeptical of the avalanche of press releases...
 
Renegade One said:
So, a CONOPs already exists?

Maybe I'll add that to my list of the required "future wash cycles".

Hey, I get it…nothing happens overnight, and this, too, will probably get all figured out. I'm just skeptical of the avalanche of press releases...
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Remember how it took only a few short years for them to hang Hellfires off of the original Predator UAV...
 
I would be very surprised if this appeared in a production version on your local CVN in the next 15 years. As R1 alluded to, there are about 5 million things that have to happen between now and then. This isn't the same as introducing a new bomb or manned aircraft to the flight deck, this is changing the composition of the airwing, the infrastructure on the boat, and the planning, tactics, and employment methods that have been used for the last 50 years. Institutional inertia is a bitch, and military acquisition rarely moves fast.
 
From this week's Defense flacks:

http://defensetech.org/author/brendan-mcgarry/

Salient points:
  • Northrop... has built two aircraft for the UCAS program, which has cost $1.8 billion to date. Each plane is about the size of an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet.
Well, you do the math…for both program cost and flight deck multiple.
  • The service has said it plans to request proposals for a preliminary design review for the UCLASS program this month, followed by a similar request for technology development next month.
The very early "baby-steps" I alluded to earlier…there are about 20 others before anything you and I would recognize as "IOC" to the fleet.
  • Northrop is expected to square off against other defense giants for the work, including Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. Lockheed is pitching the Sea Ghost, Boeing the Phantom Ray and General Atomics the Sea Avenger.
Like I said…you could have named them yourselves. Each of THEIR variants will cost probably WAAY more than the X-47…because they will be expected to have all the requirements-based capabilities that the X-47 demonstrator did not. All the X-47 has had to do is takeoff, fly around without hitting anything, land ashore and (so far) take a cat shot. Admin stuff…so easy even a SNA can do it!
 
^^^ Never mind a hook to fish it out of the drink- hopefully they get just the tailhook right- so easy even a room full of JSF engineers can do it (oh no, wait...).
 
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