Northrop Grumman Corporation and the US Navy have conducted the Navy’s first catapult launch of an unmanned system using the X-47B unmanned combat air system (UCAS) demonstrator.

The test was conducted today at a shorebased catapult facility at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. It marks the first of several shore-based catapult-to-flight tests that will be performed before the Navy’s UCAS Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) programme catapult-launches the X-47B from a ship.

Northrop Grumman is the Navy’s prime contractor for the UCAS-D programme.

“Today’s successful launch is another critical milestone in the carrier-suitability testing phase of the UCAS-D programme,” said Mike Mackey, Northrop Grumman’s UCAS-D programme director. “It also provides another confidence-building step towards our rendezvous with history next year.”

Over the next few weeks, the UCASD programme expects to conduct several shore-based catapults at Patuxent River. On November 26, an X-47B was hoisted aboard the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) at Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia, to begin a series of deck handling trials. The trials, expected to run through mid-December, will be used to evaluate the performance of the CDU in an actual carrier environment.

In 2013, the programme plans to demonstrate the ability of an X-47B to operate from a Navy aircraft carrier, including launch, recovery and air traffic control operations. The programme will also mature technologies required for potential future Navy unmanned air system programmes.