U.S. Navy: UCLASS Will be Bigger, and Stealthy

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The U.S Navy’s unmanned carrier launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) program has evolved to call for a jet that is much larger and much more capable than what was envisioned just six months ago, Navy officials told USNI News.

“We’re talking about a 70,000- to 80,000-pound airplane,” Rear Adm. Mike Manazir, the Navy’s director of air warfare said in a 20 December interview. “We’re talking [Grumman F-14] Tomcat size.” The shift in the character of UCLASS comes as the service prepares to release a set of months-delayed draft requirements to industry, and follows a struggle inside the Pentagon over the character of the aircraft. “The concepts have moved around. They’ve been: You want unmanned off the carrier to do some off-cycle ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] – we’re more than that now,” Manazir said. “We have heavy-end ISR and strike capability with some growth in the ability to carry weapons and some growth in the sensor package.”

Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics are all hoping to secure what looks to one of the Defense Department’s few new start development programs for the foreseeable future. The Navy’s current thinking about the UCLASS concept calls for an aircraft much larger than even the 44,000-lb. Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air system-demonstrator (UCAS-D). In fact, the UCLASS could be considerably larger than even the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, with some of the proposed UCLASS designs being 68 ft. long—eight feet longer than a Super Hornet, Manazir said.

IHLS – Israel Homeland Security

The Navy hopes to use the UCLASS as an aerial refueling tanker to extend the range of the tactical fighter fleet – particularly the Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighter. “We’re going to put a refueling capability into them and they’ll have an endurance package in them,” Manazir said. “They’ll be able to give away something like 20,000 lbs. of gas and still stay up for seven-and-a-half hours.”

The Navy is still looking at what the UCLASS might be able to do for a combat identification role inside contested airspace – which is the mission the Navy currently envisions for it future F-35C fleet. Its stealth capabilities will not be equal to those of the F-35C, in any case. It might also be useful as a flying missile magazine to supplement the firepower of the F/A-18 and F-35C. Manazir said that by 2030, once the Navy has some operational experience with the UCLASS, it will have a better understanding of the aircraft.

Source: USNI News