What tech development absolutely separates the X47B from the Beast of Kandahar (which may or may not be the Lockheed RQ-170 Sentinel)?
Will make new thread if requested to avoid hijack.
Awesome. Simply awesome.
Thats a yes, drone landed on carrier “today”.
Proving it can… by doing it.
I would say this marks the beginning of the end (of manned naval fighter planes). RP drones are a much better deal-cheaper, longer endurance, and no multimillion $$/multi-year training program. In a way, this is as significant as Eugene Ely’s first carrier landing (1913); only we have a big lobby that will fight the introduction of unmanned carrier fighters to the end.
I’m picturing gigantic swarms of cheap fighter drones, a-la Total Annihilation.
That lobby is called “Naval aviators,” and “technological feasibility.”
The difference between landing a UAV on a carrier and having an effective drone fighter squadron is pretty much the difference between launching a V-2 rocket and landing a man on the moon. There is no good way to control UAVs in hostile territory or allow them to engage in a dogfight, and there probably won’t be for at least a decade, and probably several more.
Just like Predator drones – slow, simple machines that function well in uncontested skies – are not the end of F-15s, F-16s, or F-35s; the X-47 simply isn’t the end of F-18s or F-35s. That’s a long way off.
The X-47B has successfully landed on the carrier on two out of four attempts. That’s pretty good for a totally new capability, but it is not the final nail in the coffin of manned naval aviation, either. Plus it looks like the X-47B might not fly again, since the Navy is calling the tests successful.