November 23, 2007 6:00 AM PST
Boeing moved on to the X-45A Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle, or UCAV, technology demonstrator, which flew over the next few years in evaluations for the Pentagon's Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program. That effort has apparently been superseded by work involving Northrop Grumman's X-47B, a similar UAV with a marked resemblance to the B-2 bomber. (See "Photos: Unmanned vehicles take to air, land and sea.")
J-UCAS, by the way, envisioned "a networked system of high performance, weaponized unmanned air vehicles to effectively and affordably prosecute 21st century combat missions...within the emerging global command and control architecture." Translated from military-industrial bureaucratic terms, that sounds like stealth technology meeting the SkyNet systems of the Terminator movies. Cue ominous orchestral music?
Photo by NASA photo by Jim Ross
