Okay, fine. National Examiner then.
The second half of this statement is not logically connected to the first half, i.e. it's a complete non sequitur. Also, the fact is that no other country including the US has a UCAV in operational status flying off its carriers. No other country is even testing UCAVs to be flown off their carriers. Perhaps you don't know the difference between a UCAV and a UAV; they aren't the same things. Wind Shadow is a UCAV while the X-47B UCAV was canceled and the planned MQ-25A Stingray (itself a neutered UCLASS) is a UAV. The UCAV follow-on to the Stingray is still a pipe dream. While the X-47B certainly pioneered UCAV launches off a catapult, its canceled status and the fact that its successor the MQ-25A is just a UAV means that the Wind Shadow (or even another navalized PLAN UCAV) is certainly going to be the naval UCAV torchbearer from here on out.
I think it is still far too soOn to write of the UCLASS or any other future armed UAV for the NAvy.
While the last administration found common cause with the groups inside the Navy bent on protecting manned aircraft at all costs and reversed a decision that had made it to the decks of the carrier with an aircraft virtually ready to go in terms of an armed surveillance and strike mission, and with very strong stealth to boot...that does not mean that the argument or the battle is ended.
IMHO, the decision to end the X-47B and at first turn it into a tanker with maybe a little surveillance was ludicrous, the follow on decision by Grumman, who had the expertise (and still does) to build that type of aircraft and make it work off of a carrier, told the Navy and the government thAt it was not interested in a paltry use of that aircraft for a tanker mission.
Now...a tanker mission may end up being a UAV mission (or is it is called in the Navy a C-BARS "Carrier Born Aerial Refueling System.
But the armed strike and surveillance mission of the X-47B variety is not dead and has not gone away. it has simply suffered a very political set back for the time being, one which the manufacture was unwilling to convert into the Stringray...and that said a lot right there about the depth of the conflict internal to the service and the politics.
Make no mistake, the US still has and is husbanding and holding close the technology and knowledge that allowed the X-47B to do what it did. And it will come out again sooner or later. My hope is sooner.
It is ludicrous to think that the X-47B heralded the end of manned flight. When it comes to many manned flights, including air dominance and CAS and more, the manned component is still very much required, particularly if there is any thought or chance of a opposition presence in the air over or near the targets.
At any rate...let's give it some more time. I believe the Chinese are years away from having a truly effective UCLASS type capability off of carrier decks while the US in 2013 showed it could be done, what all went into making that happen is something that a nation relatively new to aircraft operations off of carrier decks will have a very steep curve to go through in order to repeat it.
But time will tell...on both counts. How soon the Chinese can make it happen...and how soon the US will get back on track with a technology that is truly got game changing potential.
The US NAvy and Grumman and Lockheed were already in a position to have FA?18-F aircraft of F-35C aircraft control up to the X-47Bs from their cockpits if necessary in terms of having a front force of UCLASS aircraft doing the SEAD mission followed immediately by the larger strike aircraft who were either controlling them themselves, or taking their ques from Advanced Hawkeyes, or control from the ship or any place else the comms could reach...and for the US that comm is not necessarily going to be satellite alone in the future as the US established with Global Hawks, P-8s and Tritons, regional and global communication hubs to replace the satellite comms whenever they are threatened.
The uS is on the cusp of making all of that happen...in fact had made it happened...it is just not deployed world-wide yet.
But recognizing the threat to the satellite comms has made the US spend years and many billions in establishing alternate means to have the comm control necessary to do all the neat networking and control it has grown used to.
The UCLASS was going to be an integral part of that...and I simply refuse to believe that such a ground breaking part will remain set aside for too long.
Time will tell though.
