By Graham Warwick at Farnborough air show
A range of manned and unmanned strike options is being considered by the US Air Force and Navy in the wake of cancellation of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) programme.
While the USAF moves to field a new long-range strike (LRS) capability by 2018, the US Navy is studying the requirements for a new carrier-based strike aircraft and plans to demonstrate a naval unmanned combat air strike (N-UCAS), which could also enter service around 2018.
Boeing and Northrop Grumman expect a request for proposals late this year or early next for N-UCAS, leading to award of a contract in April for a demonstration to be conducted by 2012, focusing on unmanned operations on and around aircraft carriers. At Farnborough, Boeing displayed the first X-45C J-UCAS demonstrator, built but never flown after the programme was cancelled earlier this year.
Northrop has almost completed the critical design review for its carrier-capable X-47B, designed for J-UCAS, but now to be offered for N-UCAS. Boeing says its N-UCAS design will be slightly different to the X-45C, to meet carrier approach and landing requirements. Both companies say the navy's focus for N-UCAS has shifted from persistent intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance to strike.
At the same time, the US Navy has begun studying the need for a new stealthy strike aircraft - a mission that was once to have been performed by the A-12, cancelled in 1991. "They will do a formal analysis of alternatives at some point," says Chris Chadwick, Boeing vice- president and general manager global strike systems.
The USAF is already conducting an LRS analysis of alternatives, looking at highly survivable subsonic and supersonic manned and unmanned aircraft. The unmanned option would draw on J-UCAS technology, but be much larger than the X-45/47. The USAF is looking for a radius exceeding 3,700km (2,000nm) with a 4,500kg (10,000lb). N-UCAS, by comparison, has a 2,000-3,000km radius with 1,800kg payload.
Source: Flight International
