"Navy Got Drone" Topic

"We got stealth drones
and we make 'em fly
you other navies can't deny
when a drone swoops down in your airspace
and shines a laser in your face
you get woozy
'cause it's a doozy
when it comes in fast
and makes a blast
they'll drop that flag
straight down the mast…"

link

FIrst pic I've seen of it in flight. Cool looking craft.

Well played, sir!

I'm still waiting for the carrier quals. That will make or break the system.

Navy Robot Make a Top-Gun Move

"In a milestone for robotic aviation, the Navy's most valued drone has successfully simulated landing on an aircraft carrier deck for the first time. That deceptively simple maneuver, performed over the weekend, is a sign that Navy might really be able to operate drones off its aircraft carriers, helping the U.S. keep its robotic edge.

On Saturday, as shown in the video above, the Dorito-shaped X-7B descended from the skies onto a mock carrier deck on dry land at the Navy's Patuxent River testbed. It was a test flight, but one unlike the previous ones conducted by the demonstrator aircraft, it was a crucial one. The robot's tailhook caught the kind of cable, called an MK-7 arresting gear, that the Navy's actual Top Gun pilots have to catch all the time when they touch down on flattops at sea. Not bad for a robot, especially one that doesn't even have a tail.

The implications of the successful test are big. Landing on a moving target like an aircraft carrier is one of the hardest maneuvers in aviation. Navy pilots call it "the Trap" and talk about a "Pucker Factor" when they pull it off. The Navy wants its semi-autonomous Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike drone, the follow-on to the X-47B, to do all that at the click of a mouse. Other nations might be scrambling to build drones and blunt the U.S.' robotic advantage; none of them has a drone that can do anything close to this.

Nor does the United States — yet. Getting a robot to make the Trap on the deck of a carrier at sea is an enormous challenge. Imagine a jet-powered aircraft descending extremely rapidly onto a surface that's pitching and rolling through tempestuous waters, all while steaming through the seas. Imagine doing so at night.

If you miss the Trap, lots of bad things can happen. Your plane goes careening into the water. You smash into other planes. You kill the flight crew on the deck. You damage the ship. You are badly wounded or dead…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

I think the computers would do a better faster and safer job of it like a laser guided missile hitting a moving dot with in 6 inches. Humans really suck at doing things like landing aircraft. FYI: Every large air plane you have been in since 1975 has been landed by the auto-pilot unless the planes system was not working. The human operator has been there as a back up only…. when you hear a pilot say these things fly themselves and they are just along for the ride like you are, they are not joking at all.

The most recent official USN video I can find is this one of the X-47B doing taxi trials on the deck of USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).

YouTube link

Most interesting to note the pilot/drone operator with his portable control unit, next to the yellow-shirt.

Is it just me or does any one else think the Navy's drone looks like the same one the Iranians claim to have captured over a year or two ago.

What I'm saying is how don't we know the Iranians did just have a mock up?

the Iranians claim to have captured an RQ-170

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I suspect the drone's carrier landing performance will be far better than that of human pilots, during day, or night, especially since the drone won't care if it's dark.

Interesting to note that we're conducting drone landings, while the Chinese are just starting to conduct manned ones.

Wonder how long until they catch up to us in that arena?

If they can steal the autoland software once it's fully functional, effectively immediately (if the Su35s are actually fly-by-wire).

Ooooo sexy

If I am not mistaken the F-18 is able to do a hands free landing on a carrier now.

In Naval Aviator-ese its "a Trap" not "the Trap". Spent too much of my time stuck on a Bird Farm when I was in the Navy considering that I was a Brown Water Blackshoe….

(with that I did survive 17 traps as cargo in a C2 plus 23 Catapult launches, the Cat shots were much more exciting than the Traps (I prefer Helo trips to C2s in general I found the seats in Helos more comfortable to sleep in))

Thanks for the clip Task Force but I have to ask who is the guy giving hand directions performing to if there's nobody in the cockpit? Looks like the navy still has to make a few adjustments yet in accepting the whole unmanned idea!

The dude giving hand signals is giving them to a ground controller. Didn't you notice the guy in the yellow shirt with an iPad chasing the drone?