From DefenseNews

 

Northrop Wins U.S. Navy Unmanned Strike Aircraft Competition

By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS

 

Northrop Grumman has beaten a Boeing team as the Navy’s choice to develop the Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) — intended to prove the technology to provide the fleet’s aircraft carriers with a long-range pilotless jet strike aircraft.

The award of a $636 million cost-plus-incentive-fee development contract was announced by the Navy late Aug. 1.

The competition to develop the aircraft — also known as UCAS-N, for UCAS-Navy — was between Boeing’s X-45N and Northrop Grumman’s X-47B test aircraft. Northrop now will be the prime contractor to build and fly the new aircraft.

Both single-engine jet competitors were part of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program, which was dissolved early in 2006. J-UCAS, intended to provide an unmanned aircraft for both the Navy and Air Force, was dropped in the Quadrennial Defense Review, which favored concentrating development on a long-range carrier-based strike aircraft.

Boeing’s X-45 was first developed as a land-based aircraft, while Northrop’s X-47 was designed from the outset as a carrier plane — an aspect Northrop felt gave it a leg up on the competition.

The program is intended “to demonstrate critical carrier suitability technologies of a Low Observable-Platform Air Vehicle in a relevant environment,” Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, said in July.

The program “will launch a technical effort to demonstrate the aircraft carrier suitability of an autonomous low-observable unmanned air vehicle, as well as demonstrate critical aircraft carrier suitability technologies in a relevant environment,” the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) said in a statement released late Aug. 1.

According to the contract announcement, Northrop will deliver trade studies, analyses, software, reports and flight-test data on the aircraft. The program will involve shipboard operation, including catapult takeoffs, arrested landings and flight in the immediate vicinity of an aircraft carrier. The air vehicle will not carry weapons, NAVAIR said.

“This specific contract is for technology development and demonstration and will not be an operational system,” Capt. Rich Brasel, program manager for NAVAIR’s technology demonstration effort here, said in the statement. “But through it, we will develop knowledge, skills and technologies specific to operating an autonomous low-observable unmanned air vehicle in an aircraft carrier environment. This is a critical step in efforts to develop future Naval Aviation combat capabilities.”

Northrop’s Integrated Systems, Western Region sector, will build the aircraft in Palmdale, Calif., and systems integration will be performed at San Diego.

The system will be composed of two low-observable UAVs, two mission control segments and a support segment. The system will be capable of autonomous launch, recovery and operations in the Carrier Control Area, according to NAVAIR.

Flight testing is scheduled to begin in late 2009 and culminate with carrier flight operations in 2013, the Navy said.

From Aviation Week

 

Details About Northrop UCAS Operations Emerge

Aug 9, 2007

David A Fulghum, Amy Butler, and Bettina H Chavanne/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

 

Details about stealth, unmanned concepts of operation and new missions like air-to-air refueling are emerging following the award of the U.S. Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) contract to Northrop Grumman.

 

Building off the company's X-47B prototype, the $635.8-million, six-year contract includes landing an unmanned combat aircraft on a carrier deck by late 2011 (DAILY, Aug. 2).

 

According to company officials, the X-47B flying wing design will offer stealth protection against both high frequency (anti-aircraft radars and ground-to-air or air-to-air missiles) and low frequency (long-range search radars) emitters, a capability that earlier stealth designs didn't have.

 

The unmanned aircraft also will offer the ability to takeoff and land on aircraft carriers and operate in weather too poor for manned flight. Because there is no pilot in the cockpit, mission endurance is expected to reach 50-100 hours.

 

Since the UCAS is going to be aloft for so long, the company is adapting the two weapons bays to carry 12 precision-guided, 250-pound small diameter bombs instead of two 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) [Emphasis mine]. That way the aircraft can strike more targets during a mission and take advantage of its long-loiter capability.

 

As to new missions, company planners are looking at installing a 600-gallon fuel tank in each weapons bay so that it can serve as a tanker [Emphasis mine]. That option has brought cheers from the F/A-18 Hornet community, which since the retirement of the Navy's S-3s has had to perform aerial refueling for the carrier-based community.

 

A rough schedule for the UCAS program is taking shape. The post-award conference will be held in three-four weeks, says Navy Capt. Richard Brasel, program manager for the demonstration. Air vehicle one is 50 percent complete at Northrop Grumman's facility in Palmdale, Calif., with rollout slated for next year. Air vehicle two is expected to enter the manufacturing process next year. Both demonstrators will be designed for a life of 400 flight hours.

 

First flight in late 2009 or early 2010 will be on the West Coast, likely at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Flight envelope expansion will be conducted with air vehicle one, then testing will shift to Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md.

 

The first land-based, aircraft carrier-type, arrested landing is to be conducted at NAS Lakehurst, N.J., in early 2011. Sea trials are to begin that summer. Depending on carrier availability, the first trap on an aircraft carrier is planned for summer 2012.