BOEING X-45 J-UCAS IS NOW A PRECISION BOMBER

IN APRIL 2004, a Boeing Phantom Works-built X-45A Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) technology demonstrator dropped an inert (nonexplosive) Global Positioning Systemguided 250-pound Small Smart Bomb (SSB) at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Range at China Lake, California. As planned, it landed next to a parked vehicle, which would have been destroyed had the bomb been live.

The bomb was released at 35,000 feet (10,670 meters) as the X-45A flew at Mach 0.67-approximately 500mph (800km per hour). This is the first unmanned, autonomous air vehicle to drop a precision bomb on a target from an internal weapons bay. An operator on the ground gave the three commands: "Target confirmation, arm and release," before the weapons-bay door was opened. The X-45A did all maneuvers autonomously, including bay-door operations and weapon-away release sequences, while a human operator supervised. The X-45 aircraft have two side-by-side bays in which these precise weapons are carried.

Boeing's Phantom Works built two X-45A J-UCAS as Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV) technology demonstrators, and the first was flown on May 22, 2002, at Edwards AFB, California. The next milestone for the X-45A J-UCAS program will be an X-45A and a piloted Lockheed T-33 T-Bird flying in formation.

A much larger version of the X-45A-the X-45C-is being built by the IDS unit of Boeing Co. in St. Louis, Missouri, and is scheduled to be flown in mid-2006.

-Steve Pace

Copyright Air Age Publishing Aug 2004
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