Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Or Maybe Sweetman is Wrong: US Navy Readying UCLASS RFP, Emphasizes ISR


The US Navy (USN) is just months away from opening a competition for its Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance Strike (UCLASS) programme, an aircraft development whose characteristics have been the subject of a great deal of debate within the US government.

Rear Admiral Mark Darrah, the US Navy's (USN's) Program Executive Officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons, on 17 March described UCLASS as primarily an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform.

"The leading payloads are ISR payloads, but there will also be strike," Rear Adm Durrah said during the Precision Strike Association's annual conference in Springfield, Virginia.

link.

Avleak's Sweetman recently speculated the actions of Lockheed and Northrop indicated Boeing had won the UCLASS competition already or that the competition had been shelved to use a Boeing platform.

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