US Navy to Release UCLASS RFP in July

The US Navy (USN) plans to soon release its much-anticipated final Request for Proposals (RfP) for the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) system despite congressional concern regarding an overemphasis on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) roles.

A final RfP for the aircraft is to be released in July following an industry day with four likely competitors, Rear Admiral Mathias Winter, the USN's programme executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons, said during 13 May remarks at the annual Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference in Orlando, Florida.

Language in the House Armed Services Committee's version of the fiscal year 2015 (FY 2015) defence authorisation bill would require "the Secretary of Defense to conduct a review of the requirements for a carrier-based unmanned aircraft system" and provide a report to the US Congress by 30 December. That legislation must still be reconciled with a yet unwritten Senate version and then signed into law.

Congressmen said "the Navy needs a long-range, survivable unmanned ISR-strike aircraft as an integral part of the carrier air wings as soon as possible".

The legislation noted that a "disproportionate emphasis in the [UCLASS] requirements on unrefueled endurance to enable continuous ISR support to the Carrier Strike Group (CSG), a capability need presumably satisfied by the planned acquisition of 68 MQ-4C Tritons, would result in an aircraft with serious deficiencies in both survivability and internal weapons payload capacity and flexibility".

Rear Adm Winter said that each of the four congressional defence committees are receiving full briefings on the draft RfP.

He contested criticism that the programme had significantly scaled back its strike functions in favour of a more achievable ISR role, saying that requirements have "been absolutely solid" and not changed much.

Those requirements are an unmanned carrier-launched aircraft that is affordable, on time, capable of persistent orbits around the CSG (with more than one aircraft), hosts ISR and targeting strike capability, is delivered within 5-6 years from contractor selection, and can operate "in a permissive to gradually contested environment", according to Rear Adm Winter.

He said that the USN must clarify "what does 'permissive to contested' mean to an engineer", and the service has been working to make sure design requirements leave "a technically feasible solution space".

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