Boeing has selected General Electric's F404 fighter engine to power the X-45B unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) under development for the US Air Force. The F404 is the leading candidate to power Boeing's proposed naval UCAV, but Northrop Grumman is believed to have chosen Pratt & Whitney Canada's PW308 civil turbofan for its rival UCAV-N demonstrator design.
Both companies have been awarded $10 million US Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) contracts to continue risk-reduction studies on the UCAV-N. The Phase IIA contracts run until September 2004, but a request for proposals to build a demonstrator under Phase IIB is imminent, with one of the companies to be awarded a contract later this year leading to flight tests in 2005. Running the phases in parallel is believed to be an effort to maintain competition for the operational UCAV-N.
Boeing's X-45B is a larger version of the company's Honeywell F124-powered X-45A demonstrator, built for the DARPA/USAF UCAV technology demonstration and expected to fly by the end of the month. The F404-powered X-45B, scheduled to fly in 2004-5, is similar to the initial operational UCAV planned for the USAF, which wants 14 vehicles by 2008 for operational evaluation.
Boeing has yet to select an engine for its X-46 UCAV-N demonstrator, but has previously stressed the commonality between its designs for the USAF and US Navy. Northrop Grumman's proposedX-47B UCAV-N design is scaled up from its company-funded X-47A Pegasus demonstrator, powered by a P&WCJT15D turbofan, which is being prepared for its first flight later this year.
Source: Flight International
