…Our Future Carrier-Based Drone.
"The admiral in charge of the Navy's drone development says there will be "no new weapons development program" for the drone the Navy wants to operate on an aircraft carrier.
Rear Adm. Matthias Winter told a drone-industry conference on Wednesday that the Navy isn't going to design any new weapons for its future Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System, or UCLASS. The futuristic drone, which the Navy wants to take off and land from an aircraft carrier at the click of a mouse, will use weapons already in the magazines of aircraft carriers.
In other words, even though the UCLASS will likely be the most advanced drone in the U.S. fleet, its weapons — most likely missiles — are going to be familiar.
Very little has been public about the weapons that the UCLASS will carry. Winter, a senior official with the Navy's aviation branch, indicated that's because little has been decided about them. The demonstration model built for UCLASS, the batwing-shaped X-47B, will "never carry a weapon," Winter said in response to a Danger Room question about UCLASS' weapons systems.
The Navy intends to issue a solicitation to defense companies as early as this year for industry to compete for what UCLASS should actually look like. Winter said the Navy plans on a "dialog" with defense companies about the weapons systems aboard the carrier drone, and how it integrates into the other systems on the drone, rather than a set Navy dictate. "There will be strike capability as part of this solicitation," Winter said, without elaboration. "The specifics will be in the trade space…"
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Had to wait to 2020.
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