GAO to US Navy: Decide on What UCLASS is Supposed to do

The US Government Accountability Office has warned that unless the US Navy carefully considers its requirements for the service's future unmanned, carrier-launched surveillance and strike (UCLASS) programme it risks rendering redundant any research carried out so far.

While UCLASS has been delayed by some three years amid indecision on the likely role for the aircraft, testing has been carried out on the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator that most recently achieved an aviation first when it performed an autonomous in-flight refuelling in mid-April.

"Ongoing debate about whether the primary role of the UCLASS system should be mainly surveillance with limited strike or mainly strike with limited surveillance has delayed the programme," the GAO says in a report released on 4 May. "The knowledge the navy has obtained about the resources needed to develop the UCLASS system may no longer be applicable depending on what requirements are finally chosen."

The GAO says that if the final UCLASS requirements emphasise a strike role with limited surveillance, the navy will likely need to "revisit its understanding of available resources in the areas of design knowledge, funding, and technologies" before awarding an air system development contract.

The future of the two X-47B demonstrators also remains unclear. As it stands, funding is exhausted, with the navy having spent some $1.5 billion on their development. The two prototype aircraft are expected to be retired to a museum.

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