The U.S. Navy has completed the first round of testing on an experimental drone that has the potential to change the future of naval aviation. The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System was put through a series of mechanical and engineering tests designed to assess the drone’s compatibility with an aircraft carrier’s electronic systems and physical structure during a two-week period aboard the USS Harry S. Truman.
“The system performed outstandingly,” Don Blottenberger, program manager for the Navy’s unmanned aircraft program, said in a statement. “We’ve learned a lot about the environment that we’re in and how compatible the aircraft is with a carrier’s flight deck, hangar bays and communication systems.”
As the development of unmanned aircraft has becoming an increasing priority to the Department of Defense in recent years, the military is striving to develop aircraft capable of “[taking] on every type of mission currently flown by manned aircraft,” Jeremiah Gertler, a military aviation specialist, wrote in the report.
Digital messages relayed from the shipboard controllers were successfully used to control the unmanned aircraft using a remote control joystick, proving that the X-47B was capable of the precision maneuverability that the aircraft carrier’s flight deck requires. The digital engine controls were also tested for possible reactions to electromagnetic fields.
