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Boeing Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS)
Aviation history was made May 22, 2002, when Boeing’s X-45A demonstrator for the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System, or J-UCAS, completed its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. This milestone marked the birth of the first highly autonomous unmanned system specifically designed for combat operations in the network-centric environments of the 21st century. This persistent, highly survivable system will conduct operational missions including electronic attack; suppression of enemy air defenses; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and deep strike. By successfully accomplishing all required flights and ground demonstrations since that first flight, Boeing has completed the first two of five blocks demonstrating increasingly intelligent, autonomous capabilities. Another aviation first occurred when the X-45A demonstrator hit a ground target with a 250-pound, inert, near-precision-guided weapon released from its internal weapons bay April 18, 2004. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), Boeing and the U.S. Air Force are now conducting the demonstration block three, where two X-45A prototypes are demonstrating multivehicle coordinated operations in increasingly complex tactical scenarios. While the X-45A flies numerous test missions and rewrites aviation history, Boeing is developing an advanced version, the X-45C, for an early capabilities demonstration. The C configuration will be approximately 39 feet long with a 49-foot wingspan and will cruise at 0.8 Mach. Despite being only a few feet thick, its maximum payload will be 4,500 pounds, and it will carry eight GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs, Boeing’s newest nearprecision 250-pound weapon. This revolutionary combat vehicle will fly at 40,000 feet with a mission radius of over 1,200 nautical miles. The Boeing J-UCAS program will produce weapons systems that will significantly increase the warfighter’s effectiveness in a broad spectrum of missions. Through the use of advanced information systems, the air vehicle and associated mission control system will take full advantage of the flexibility, speed, adaptability and power of near-real-time battlefield management. When coupled with advanced sensors and precision weapons, the J-UCAS will provide the Joint Forces Air Component commander numerous options to execute the air campaign plan holding targets at risk with persistent, lethal presence. The system will be able to employ precision-guided weapons such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Small Diameter Bombs, using two internal weapons bays. The air vehicles will be able to operate independently or be fully integrated with manned aircraft operations, and will incorporate next-generation stealth technologies. The program is being planned with a series of overlapping spirals, each incorporating more technology to incrementally increase warfighter capability. Capabilities demonstrations will begin in 2007 to provide program options for future production and fielding |
