Yesterday the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle was launched off the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier off the coast of Virginia and announced publicly. It first landed on the carrier and was launched a second time. It made history by taking off from Patuxent River NAS and landing on the carrier, a first. Developed under a DARPA program by Northrop Grumman, the late Jack Northrop would be proud of this latest version of a flying wing, which he championed. First flight of the X-47B prototype was from Edwards Air Force Base, CA on 4 February 2011, incidentally my birthday.
The X-47B has a 62 foot wingspan with folding wing tips for aircraft carrier use like WWII Navy aircraft and has retractable tri-gear. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney F100-220U Turbofan it is capable of high subsonic Mach 0.9+ speeds with a 2,100+ mile range and 40,000 foot ceiling. Max takeoff weight is 44,567 pounds. This is one large drone!
The B version is unarmed but there are two weapon bays for up to 4,500 pounds of ordnance. No new weapons will be developed for its use in the follow-on UCLASS (Unmanned Carrier-Launched Surveillance and Strike System) design. The X-47B is a demonstration unmanned combat air vehicle developed from the X-47A Pegasus and will develop into the X-47C UCLASS.