The
Navy's X-47B demonstrator completed the first independent, remotely piloted
aircraft aerial refueling during a flight from NAS Patuxent River, Md., this
week, Northrop Grumman
announced. "Testing with the X-47B helps solidify
the concept that future unmanned aircraft can perform standard missions like
aerial refueling and operate seamlessly with manned aircraft," program
manager Navy Capt. Beau Duarte said in the release. The tanker trial concluded
the service's Unmanned Combat Air System program to mature technology and
concepts for integrating unmanned aircraft into a carrier air wing, according
to Naval Air Systems Command's release. The two
demonstrator
aircraft
achieved
several
milestones
over the course of the four-and-a-half year test program, including the first
autonomous catapult launch and arrested-carrier landing from the USS George
H.W. Bush (CVN 77) in 2013. The Navy is looking to field a separate,
operational follow-on under its Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance
and Strike program. The X-47B successfully refueled from a contract K-707
tanker over the Chesapeake Bay, April 22.
