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Boeing Monday unveiled its fighter-sized Phantom Ray unmanned aircraft, which is scheduled to fly in December. "We are on a fast track, and first flight is in sight," Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, said in a news release, noting that the program just started two years ago. Phantom Ray, which evolved from the X-45C program, is designed to be a test bed for advanced technologies and support such missions as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, suppression of enemy air defenses, electronic attack, strike and autonomous aerial refueling, Boeing said. The Phantom Ray is 36-feet long, with a 50-foot wingspan,...

The Pentagon's plans for developing and eventually fielding unmanned aircraft capable of delivering munitions in high-risk battle scenarios once again are undergoing a structural change. What once was known as the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems, or J-UCAS, program is shifting from a joint Air Force and Navy program to one led solely by the Navy. The program is intended to develop and test the technologies necessary to field fleets of unmanned aircraft capable of operating on their own to attack and shut down enemy air defenses. Created in 2003, the original program merged the separate efforts of the Air...

The next generation of unmanned weapons systems entered a new phase this fall with the transition of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems, or J-UCAS, program from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to a joint Air Force-Navy management team. The program is intended to develop and test the technologies necessary to field fleets of unmanned aircraft capable of operating on their own to attack and shut down enemy air defenses. The full effect of the transition is not yet known, as funding and program decisions remain to be settled with the fiscal year 2007 budget. Created...

ST. LOUIS, August 10, 2005 – Two Boeing [NYSE: BA] Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) X-45A unmanned aircraft successfully completed a graduation exercise when they flew their most challenging simulated combat mission today at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. "We pushed the X-45As to their limits and they responded brilliantly," said Darryl Davis, Boeing Global Strike Solutions vice president. "This incredible X-45A program made aviation history and laid the foundation for our X-45C, which will become a critical weapon in our military's arsenal." For test flights 63 and 64, the X-45As departed from the...

Over today's battlefields, unmanned aerial vehicles such as Global Hawk and Predator are already showing their usefulness in gathering information for planners on the ground and, in limited situations, delivering weapons on targets. The battlefield of tomorrow may see even more of these unmanned weapons systems, delivering initial strikes on well-defended targets and capable of working in teams and reacting and adapting to changing circumstances - all on their own. That scenario is the ultimate goal of the Pentagon's Joint Unmanned Combat Air System, or J-UCAS, a program intended to develop and prove the technologies necessary to field such weapons...

Swarms of unmanned, robotic airplanes may one day form the first attack wave against enemy defenses, using technology successfully demonstrated at Edwards Air Force Base. These twin aircraft, more closely resembling big lawn darts than the traditional airplane, are matching versions of the experimental X-45A. Built by The Boeing Co., they are the first phase in the Air Force's contribution to the Pentagon's Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems program. The program is intended to demonstrate capabilities for unmanned air vehicles to work together in coordinated attacks against enemy air defense systems, working in areas deemed too dangerous for manned aircraft....

PARIS, June 14, 2005 — The Boeing [NYSE: BA] X-45A J-UCAS (Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems) program received the prestigious Flight International Aerospace Industry Award for 2005 in the category of Missiles and Military Aviation. Held in conjunction with the Paris Air Show, the awards cover twelve categories representing military and commercial aerospace. Darryl Davis, program manager during the majority of the X-45A flight test program, and now vice president of Boeing Global Strike Solutions, accepted the award on behalf of the Boeing/DARPA/Air Force/Navy J-UCAS team. “We met the challenge to develop an autonomous unmanned aircraft capable of handling complex...

ST. LOUIS, May 11, 2005— Boeing [NYSE: BA] successfully completed a key Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) X-45C system requirements review with its DARPA, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy customers. The review was a joint assessment that allows Boeing to continue executing the J-UCAS Capability Demonstration Program (CDP). During the two-day review, Boeing provided a comprehensive X-45C system analysis verifying it has incorporated the customers’ performance requirements into the aircraft. A final design review will occur later this summer. “This review confirms the X-45C system we designed and are building is on track and is the right solution...

Two military jets flying together may seem routine, but when they are pilotless, tail-less aircraft, routine goes out the window and science fiction springs to mind. Boeing continued to turn science fiction into reality when two X-45A technology demonstrator aircraft made their second and third coordinated flights at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Controlled by a single pilot-operator, the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems' (J-UCAS) X-45As, complete with Boeing's latest software build known as Block 3 software, departed in succession and entered coordinated flight over the test range. Known by the call signs "Stingray 01...

ST. LOUIS, November 18, 2004 - The Boeing [NYSE: BA] Company accepted the first two engines for the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) X-45C aircraft program Nov. 10 in a ceremony held at a General Electric plant in Lynn, Mass. Boeing is building three X-45C aircraft in St. Louis as part of the J-UCAS program. Each of the aircraft will be powered by a single F404 engine. "With the F404 engine, the X-45C will be able to fly a combat radius of more than 1,200 nautical miles, cruise at 0.80 Mach, reach altitudes of 40,000 feet and carry...