The magazine Aviation Week of August 13 shows the X-47B mockup and quotes Scott Winship, Northrop Grumman’s UCAS-D program manager stating that the “wide-band, low-observable” features of the aircraft will provide protection against “all radar bands.”  The UAV has a 38-foot length and a wingspan of 61 feet. The internal weapons bay will be able to accommodate 12 of the new, precision-guided, small-diameter 250-pound bombs or two 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM).

Mission endurance is expected to reach 50 to 100 hours, i.e., far beyond that of manned carrier aircraft. Early in the development of the UCAS -- Unmanned Combat Air Systems -- program a demonstration of in-flight refueling of the X-47 was planned.  However, when the Air Force left  the X-47 program that aspect of the development effort was  dropped. The Air Force is keeping an eye on the program although the X-47 is said to be too small for Air Force long-range missions.

The two X-47B demonstration aircraft are prototypes of a UAV/UCAS intended to become operational aboard aircraft carriers by late 2011. The two X-47B aircraft will not have all low-observable systems and other features that would be on an operational aircraft.

The Navy has led the U.S. military in the development of UAVs. In both World War II and the Korean War “drones” of various types were used in combat, being carrier launched in the later conflict. In the 1960s the Navy took delivery of  more than 700 unmanned helicopters in the DASH—Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter—program.  These radio-controlled helicopters could deliver anti-submarine torpedoes or a B57 nuclear depth bomb on submarines detected out to the horizon.  More than 200 Navy ships were modified to operate the Gyrodyne-built DASH vehicles.

(The Navy did suffer a large number of DASH losses, primarily because of training and operational policies. The DASH drones were used in 1968 in the Vietnam War to spot targets for the battleship New Jersey [BB 62]. They were also used by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.)

In the 1980s the Navy procured the Israeli-developed Pioneer UAV.  That aircraft was flown by the Army, navy, and Marine Corps, with some still in use with the Marines. In the Gulf War of 1991 the Pioneers were used ashore and from Navy ships.

The X-47’s derivatives will take the combat capabilities of UAVs to a new level with the additional benefit of being a carrier-based aircraft.