Defence

Leadership of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) project has formally passed to a US Air Force/Navy programme office after a two-year stint in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Although the 1 November handover transitions the two J-UCAS vehicles – the Boeing X-45C and Northrop Grumman X-47B – from DARPA’s laboratory setting to the centre of the USAF’s tactical aircraft acquisition corps at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, little has changed about the programme’s direction – so far.

Michael Francis, DARPA’s former J-UCAS director and now a temporary consultant to the joint office, emphasises that the transition introduces no dramatic changes to the programme, other than a new headquarters location and a change in senior management.

USN Capt Ralph Alderson has been promoted to J-UCAS programme director after serving as X-45 programme manager, but the bulk of the DARPA technical staff remains employed by the new programme office. Schedule milestones such as first flight in late-2006 and operational assessment from 2007 remain unchanged, as do plans to demonstrate both vehicles using a common operating system.

However, budget pressures and strategic shifts to be introduced by the pending Quadrennial Defense Review report are not likely to leave the J-UCAS programme intact. US defence officials have already decided to slow the growth of the J-UCAS development plan, moving about $1 billion in its five-year budget plan to after 2012.

This could stretch the programme’s operational assessment until 2011 and remove funding from a planned multi-ship electronic-attack demonstration, says Francis.

STEPHEN TRIMBLE/WASHINGTON DC