Flight testing of Boeing's X-45A unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrators has resumed with expanded Block 2 software. Block 2 testing is being conducted under the new USAir Force/Navy Joint Unmanned Combat Air System programme (Flight International, 18-24 November), and will include the first multi-vehicle co-ordinated flights and release of an internally carried guided weapon.
The firstX-45A returned to flight atEdwards AFB, California, on 4 November, followed on 13 November by air vehicle 2. The two vehicles underwent Block 1 testing in February.
Block 2 demonstrations will include release of an inert GPS-guided small-diameter bomb from the internal weapons bay; automatic mission replanning, the system dynamically generating a new route to avoid detection by a simulated threat radar detected while in flight; co-ordinated flight, the two vehicles flying in formation using offsets from the same mission plan and sharing status information via Link 16 inter-vehicle datalink; and distributed control, an operator at NASA Dryden handing off control of both vehicles in flight via satellite to a control system in Seattle.
Source: Flight International