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Posted on 08/03/2011 6:31:49 PM PDT by Vroomfondel
August 3, 2011: The U.S. Navy recently conducted a successful test of the X-47B UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) landing software. An F-18D used the software to make a completely automated landing on a carrier. The two pilots in the F-18 did not touch the controls, and were there in case something went wrong with the software. The navy plans to have an X-47B make a carrier landing within two years.
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Now, the U.S. Department of Defense wants the new UAV combat aircraft in service by the end of the decade, some twenty years ahead of a schedule that was planned in the 1990s. The F-35 is expected to cease production in 2034, more than a decade after the first combat UAVs, that can match F-35 performance, enters service.
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Many UAV engineers, and some fighter pilots, believe that combat UAVs could revolutionize air warfare. Combat UAVs can perform maneuvers that a manned aircraft cannot (because there are limits to the g-forces a human body can tolerate.) In theory, software and sensors would make a combat UAV much quicker to sort out a combat situation, and make the right move. For the moment, this aspect of UAV development is officially off the table. But once combat UAVs start operating, and that will be by the end of the decade, there will be much pressure to let combat UAVs rule the skies, in addition to scouting and bombing. The senior Pentagon leadership have seen this future, and believe it is the real one. Many European, and Indian, aviation commanders agree.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
I didn’t know that...my memory tells me that when they used the system, the pilots were required to be hands off, that is, they had to assume a posture while landing similar to the one where they made while on the flight deck with their hands visible to the flight deck crews when certain tasks were being performed (such as working on a tail hook, or something like that)
As I recall, it was done so they wouldn’t get nervous and grab the controls...but that could just be my memory! (Any Navy pilots here have any input?)
Ah, didn’t see your response when I posted. Did I recall correctly, that you guys had to put your hands up near the cowling when using that stuff?
BTW...I was on the Kennedy during that time...you must have been in VA-34 then...
Heh, I was just telling my wife last night (as we watched some Military Channel thing on the A-6) how I got my helmet ripped sideways on my head by one of your planes...I was in the waist cat catwalk area for the first time, watched a bunch of planes get shot off...A-7, nobody ducked. F-14, nobody ducked...S-3, nobody ducked, A-6, everybody ducked...but me. I ended up with my nose in my left ear protector and a big raspberry under my chin where the strap was torn loose!
I always suspected the other people in the catwalk had a good laugh seeing the newbie mistake...
I was in VA-46...
VA-46...your XO was Snuffy Smith wasn't he? Guy made 4 star Admiral by the end of his career.
wow. I hear pilots hate it. I can see why. It must be nerve wracking.
Deal of the Century!
They loaded the X-47B software into the F-18 to validate it. Yes F-18s also have had the capability to land hands off I believe for quite awhile.
Just months before he died, Sakai officially admitted to reporters that he still prayed for the souls of the airmen (Chinese, American, Australian and Dutch alike) he had killed in action. "I pray every day for the souls of my enemies as well as my comrades," he said. "We all did our best for our respective countries...Glorifying death was a mistake; because I survived, I was able to move on - to make friends in the U.S. and other countries."
Eject, eject, eject!
ROFLOL! Very good!
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