X-47B has successful carrier launch

WSJ:

The Navy’s prototype drone, the X-47B, successfully catapulted off a carrier Tuesday — one small step for a drone, one giant leap for dronekind.

The X-47B launched from the USS George H.W. Bush at 11:18 a.m., according to a Navy spokesman.

The plane flew a couple of approaches and landed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The drone has completed a tailhook landing at Patuxent before, but Navy officials have said they will test its ability to land on an actual carrier in the near future.

Lawmakers and Navy officials hailed the successful flight.

“If the U.S. Navy is to maintain its technological edge in the years ahead, our continued investment in potential game-changing technologies … will be essential,” said Rep. Randy Forbes (R., Va.).

Navy officials say the $1.4 billion X-47B prototype program will lead to a full Navy drone program designed to begin fielding drones on all Navy carriers between 2017 and 2020.

But Tuesday’s flight was a major milestone, which Navy officers say one day could be looked back on as an important turning point in the history of Naval aviation.

The Navy drone is more autonomous than the current generation of Air Force drones. While Air Force pilots remotely fly MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers, the X-47B handles the complicated maneuvers required for taking off and landing on a carrier autonomously.

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This is the most advanced drone in the US arsenal at the moment.  It has more range and flight time than conventional planes and can carry a bigger payload than other drones.  It will allow carriers to launch the craft well out of the range of defending air craft and in some cases defending missiles.

Here is a video of its landing after the carrier takeoff.