Defense Systems:
Navy test replicates UAV landing on carrier
The first ever successful test of a carrier touchdown of an F/A-18D surrogate aircraft, replicating maneuvers of unmanned aerial vehicles, was completed on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) by the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System program office (PMA-268) July 2, according to a Navy press release.
The fact that the Navy was able to launch and land the surrogate is an indication that it is getting closer “to demonstrating that a tailless, strike-fighter-sized unmanned system can operate safely in the carrier environment,” said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, program manager of the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System.
The Navy has worked for more than five years to plan for and update the ship’s systems to read the UAV’s data, and also integrate both networks with Precision Global Positioning System, all in preparation for the 2013 goal of an “autonomous landing of an actual unmanned, low-observable relevant aircraft on the aircraft carrier,” according to Engdahl.
Navy orders study on UCLASS concepts
The Navy wants an Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike aircraft — or UCLASS — to fly off its carrier decks by 2018, and to that end it has awarded Boeing a contract to study just how it can get there, the aerospace company said Monday. Basically, from Boeing’s announcement, it sounds as though the Navy wants to lay down as much groundwork as possible to prove that it’ll be possible to take an aircraft, get it out to sea, on the cat, into the air and then trap it back on board.
From Boeing’s announcement:
Boeing has received a $480,000 study contract from the U.S. Navy to support pre-Milestone A activities including development of a concept of operations, an analysis of alternatives, and an investigation of potential material solutions for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program.
“The Navy wants UCLASS in the fleet in 2018,” said Jimmy Dodd, vice president, Advanced Boeing Military Aircraft. “Boeing has been delivering carrier-based aircraft to the Navy since 1925. With Boeing’s broad experience in unmanned systems and rapid prototyping, and nearly 90 years of carrier-based aircraft know-how, we are prepared to meet that schedule to support the mission and requirements the Navy establishes. This contract is the start of that.”
The UCLASS system will consist of an air segment, a connectivity and control segment, a Carrier Vessel-Nuclear (CVN) segment (launch and recovery), and a systems support segment. The work on the eight-month contract, according to the Navy’s Broad Agency Announcement, will conceptually demonstrate that a UCLASS system can provide a persistent CVN-based Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance and strike capability supporting carrier air wing operations in the 2018 time frame............