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发帖数: 7594 | 1 Navy completes 1st unmanned carrier landing
Associated Press
BROCK VERGAKIS 2 hours ago MilitaryPoliticsUnmanned aerial vehicleAircraft
carrier
A X47-B Navy Drone is launched from the deck of the nuclear aircraft carrier
USS George H. W. Bush off the Coast of Virginia Wednesday, July 10, 2013.
It is the first landing by a drone on a Navy carrier. The landing of the X-
47B experimental aircraft means the Navy can move forward with its plans to
develop another unmanned aircraft that will join the fleet alongside
traditional airplanes to provide around-the-clock surveillance while also
possessing a strike capability. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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ABOARD THE USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH (AP) — The Navy successfully landed a drone
the size of a fighter jet aboard an aircraft carrier for the first time
Wednesday, showcasing the military's capability to have a computer program
perform one of the most difficult tasks that a pilot is asked to do.
The landing of the X-47B experimental aircraft means the Navy can move
forward with its plans to develop another unmanned aircraft that will join
the fleet alongside traditional airplanes to provide around-the-clock
surveillance while also possessing a strike capability. It also would pave
the way for the U.S. to launch unmanned aircraft without the need to obtain
permission from other countries to use their bases.
"It is not often that you get a chance to see the future, but that's what we
got to do today. This is an amazing day for aviation in general and for
naval aviation in particular," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said after watching
the landing.
The X-47B experimental aircraft took off from Naval Air Station Patuxent
River in Maryland before approaching the USS George H.W. Bush, which was
operating about 70 miles off the coast of Virginia. The tail-less drone
landed by deploying a hook that caught a wire aboard the ship and brought it
to a quick stop, just like normal fighter jets do. The maneuver is known as
an arrested landing and had previously only been done by the drone on land
at Patuxent River. Landing on a ship that is constantly moving while
navigating through turbulent air behind the aircraft carrier is seen as a
more difficult maneuver, even on a clear day with low winds like Wednesday.
Rear Adm. Mat Winter, the Navy's program executive officer for unmanned
aviation and strike weapons, said everything about the flight — including
where on the flight deck the plane would first touch and how many feet its
hook would bounce — appeared to go exactly as planned.
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A X47-B Navy drone touches down as it lands aboard …
A X47-B Navy drone touches down as it lands aboard the nuclear aircraft
carrier USS George H. W. Bus …
"This is a historic day. This is a banner day. This is a red-flag letter day
," Winter said. "You can call it what you want, but the fact of the matter
is that you just observed history — history that your great-grandchildren,
my great grandchildren, everybody's great grandchildren are going to be
reading in our history books."
Less than an hour after that first landing, the jet took off from the
carrier and then landed again. On its third and last-planned landing attempt
, the Navy said, the jet self-detected a navigation computer anomaly.
Instead of landing on the carrier, it flew to Wallops Island Air Field on
the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Navy says the plane landed safely there.
The Navy will do some additional tests and analysis on the jet, and possibly
some more landings in the next few days if the carrier's schedule allows
for it, but the first landing was the last major benchmark for the program
to hit.
The X-47B will never be put into operational use, but it will help Navy
officials develop future carrier-based drones. Those drones could begin
operating by 2020, according to Winter. Four companies are expected to
compete for a contract to design the future unmanned aircraft, which will be
awarded in fiscal year 2014.
The two experimental aircraft that have been built for the first round of
testing will be retired and placed in museums at Patuxent River and at Naval
Air Station Pensacola in Florida.
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FILE - A Navy X-47B drone is launched off the nuclear …
FILE - A Navy X-47B drone is launched off the nuclear powered aircraft
carrier USS George H. W. Bush …
The move to expand the capabilities of the nation's drones comes amid
growing criticism of America's use of Predators and Reapers to gather
intelligence and carry out lethal missile attacks against terrorists in Iraq
, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.
Critics in the U.S. and abroad have charged that drone strikes cause
widespread civilian deaths and are conducted with inadequate oversight.
Still, defense analysts say drones are the future of warfare.
The X-47B is far bigger than the Predator, has three times the range and can
be programmed to carry out missions with no human intervention, the Navy
said.
While the X-47B isn't a stealth aircraft, it was designed with the low
profile of one. That will help in the development of future stealth drones,
which would be valuable as the military changes its focus from the Middle
East to the Pacific, where a number of countries' air defenses are a lot
stronger than Afghanistan's.
The X-47B has a wingspan of about 62 feet and weighs 14,000 pounds, versus
nearly 49 feet and about 1,100 pounds for the Predator.
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View gallery
A X47-B Navy drone is launched off the deck of the …
A X47-B Navy drone is launched off the deck of the nuclear aircraft carrier
USS George H. W. Bush of …
While Predators are typically piloted via remote control by someone in the U
.S., the X-47B relies only on computer programs to tell it where to fly
unless a human operator needs to step in. The Navy says the aircraft relies
on precision GPS navigation, a high-integrity network connection and
advanced flight control software to guide itself.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert called the first landing a
"miraculous technological feat."
Developed by Northrop Grumman under a 2007 contract at a cost of $1.4
billion, the X-47B is capable of carrying weapons and is designed to be the
forerunner for a drone program that will provide around-the-clock
intelligence, surveillance and targeting, according to the Navy, which has
been giving updates on the project over the past few years.
The X-47B can reach an altitude of more than 40,000 feet and has a range of
more than 2,100 nautical miles, versus 675 for the Predator. The Navy plans
to show the drone can be refueled in flight, which would give it even
greater range.
"It gives us persistence. It gives us the ability to do things that we can't
today because of the limitations on the human body in terms of endurance,
in terms of distance, in terms of just how long you can stay on station or
do the things like refueling," Mabus said. "We're not sending this message
to any particular country. This is for us. This is to make sure that we keep
the technological edge." |
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