If the Navy can get the resources, it plans to test an aerial refueling capability on its experimental carrier-launched unmanned aerial vehicle, the X-47B, as early as next year, Naval Air Systems Command officials told USNI News on Tuesday.
The move follows a $64 million June 2014 contract award to Northrop Grumman that extended the testing schedule of the Navy’s two X-47Bs on carriers and continue autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) research as part of the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System demonstration (UCAS-D) program.
“Those efforts include additional [carrier] detachments and AAR software coding through the remainder of this calendar year,” said NAVAIR program manager Capt. Beau Duarte in a statement provided to USNI News on Tuesday.
“If resources allow, the Navy may demonstrate autonomous engagement flight testing in fiscal year 2015.”
In 2013, USNI News reported NAVAIR had tentatively scheduled an autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) in 2015.
NAVAIR has conducted AAR tests with a surrogate aircraft to test the X-47B software that allows the test plane to mimic the interaction between the tanker and the aircraft receiving the fuel but stops short of a mid-air refueling.
One of the two X-47Bs — called Salty Dog 501 and Salty Dog 502 — is equipped with an aerial refueling capability, USNI News understands.
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