US Navy announced a tender for the implementation of the next stage of development of UAV UCLASS

The US Navy sent inquiries for proposals for the development of a project of the UCLASS (Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike) assault-reconnaissance UAV based on board an aircraft carrier.

According to Flight International, the terms of reference for the project are directed to four companies that have worthy projects that meet the basic requirements, as well as production and service capabilities: Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Atomix - Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI). Requests are prepared individually for each company, their content is not disclosed. Thus, exact technical requirements remain unknown.

Previously planned to send requests at the end of 2012, however, the procedure was postponed several times. It is assumed that after the applicants submit their projects and evaluate them, one winner will be selected with whom an agreement will be concluded. Bids must be submitted in early July.

All of these manufacturers have been developing UCLASS-like UAVs over the past decade.

Lockheed Martin has previously announced that it will submit to the tender unobtrusive UAV, which has similarities with the secret RQ-170 US Air Force. Details of the project are not disclosed. Supposedly, about 24 of such UAVs were manufactured, one of which crashed in Iran in 2011 year.

Northrop Grumman is likely to propose a draft X-47B unmanned aerial vehicle, a Boeing version of the Phantom Ray UAV and a General Atomix version of the Evenger BLA.

As planned, the UCLASS vehicles will be part of the aircraft carrier's aircraft group and will significantly expand its capabilities for conducting reconnaissance and striking targets.

UAVs will perform tasks both independently and in collaboration with the air group.

Unmanned vehicles will be serviced by the crew of an aircraft carrier. Their use will reduce operating costs compared with manned aircraft.

Comments

[Nevsky]

What will happen in the third decade ...?

Yankees with a public debt, he still set the pace. If the UAV will all be with gyroscopes and other safety systems in orientation, then it will not be sweet. One satellite downed does not solve the problem. Can remember Khrushchev, and punch rockets like sausages?

To shoot down everything that is flying suspicious and not to spare the kit?

[Thunderbolt]

Quote: Nevsky

What will happen in the third decade ...?

The production of the first UCLASS UAVs is scheduled to begin in FY2016. after choosing the winner of the tender. According to the draft budget of the U.S. Navy, the fleet expects that the UAV will reach the state of initial readiness for combat use by 2020. This means that by this time the squadron of 5-6 UAVs UCLASS will be ready to begin flights from the aircraft carrier together with its wing. However, the unit will not take part in combat operations. Http://www.belvpo.com/en/25442.html

[uhu189]

The trouble will be if we do not learn how to burn their electronics or deal with such robots in another way ...

[APASUS]

Each UCLASS UAV has its own "Autobase"!

[Vtel]

It’s just some kind of locust attack, the UAV is on the wing. We should urgently prepare a return move - Onishchenko, who is silent.

[Army1]

Quote: Vtel

Onishchenko, who is silent.

And what should the chief sanitary doctor of Russia say about UAVs?
In general, even if it's from the category of fiction, but in the future, you need to have people who are able to reprogram these birds against them. Jammers of satellites and electronic systems their drones are a priority of the defense program in the future.

[Quiet]

And what should the chief sanitary doctor of Russia say about UAVs?

Set the sanitary cordon as from American legs !!!! Having such a "specialist", no Russian air defense is required !!!!

[iwind]

Either other projects are highly classified, or the X-47B has so advanced that other projects are not even competitors (some will only have promises, and the Boeing will be able to provide a real device). Boeing is left to refuel by the end of the year and production can begin before serial prototypes.

[Thunderbolt]

Quote: iwind

Boeing has to refuel in the air before the end of the year

Moreover, it is noteworthy: initially the first refueling was planned for 2014. It can be concluded that the program is developing at a rapid pace.

[Simple]

"The requirement for the AAR programs ((X-47B autonomous aerial refueling) has been removed from the FY14 budget program," says Captain Jaime Engdahl, UCAS Navy Program Manager.
"We are planning final flight tests of the AAR program later this fall on manned aircraft to demonstrate several AAR technologies."
"The Navy believes it can achieve the same maturity of AAR technology by simulating it with manned aircraft as it would with the X-47B."
An early agency of advanced research projects announced the successful completion of an autonomous high-altitude refueling program between the two Northrop RQ-4 Global Hawks.
“We still hope that the funding needed for the UCAS-D autonomous air refueling demonstration program will be restored in time to complete the program as originally envisioned,” said a Northrop Grumman spokesman.
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_04_15_2013_p03-01-5

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[Lech from ZATULINKI]

in massive quantities and with a massive raid, these UAVs are a formidable force
We need to find a real antidote against this locust.

[cartridge]

We need to find a real antidote against this locust.

An underwater explosion of a couple of megatons a few kilometers from Norfolk and all problems with the American fleet are resolved forever

[sergey158-29]

We urgently need to establish contact with the "specialists from Iran", send them on a "business trip" and steal / plant on our territory ...

[Lavr75]

Well done, why not, if people can and build, where are our products, we are already buying spare parts for the T-50 in India.

[Odysseus]

Well, here the X-47B is a clear favorite. Most likely the competition will be purely formal.

[True]

The drone thing is very slippery. You can rivet them in a cloud and their capabilities are growing every year. In Russia fighting drone recognized as a futile direction. In any case, there is not one flying prototype. When Serdyukov swelled a lot of money in one project:

Unsuccessful trials of the acclaimed Russian drone finally became public: a scandalous video appeared on the Internet.
Until the moment captured on video, the design bureau Luch was terribly proud of its development - the unmanned aerial vehicle Aist. Well, right after the tests about the UAV, on which the Russian military had such high hopes, they tried to forget as quickly as possible. As well as about the project of the Ministry of Defense. Cost Russia, by the way, $ 3 million. According to the developers, the reason for the failure was a delay in the control system. Others said that the plane was simply blown away by the wind.