EAP86 said:
"Have the US military not backed away from the UCAV concept? "
Possibly, read the US DoD Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2011-2036, released only 3 months ago and found here:
http://www.acq.osd.mil/sts/docs/Unma...Y2011-2036.pdf
Not a single mention of UCAV/S (accept in the glossary). Another good document though. A UK equivalent would be useful in my opinion, enabling us to plan our development of unmanned technologies and approaches, rather than knee-jerk our way into the current unmanned ORBAT consisting of purely UORd capability (stand-by WATCHKEEPER).
Sun
.