The U.S. Navy made history today by launching the first large automated drone, the X-47B, from the deck of an aircraft carrier by catapult on Tuesday.
That means the U.S. Navy will soon have the ability to send unmanned aircraft anywhere in the world without having to get permission to launch from land bases in foreign countries.
"As our access to overseas ports, forward operating locations and airspace is diminished around the world, the value of the aircraft carrier and the air wing becomes more and more important," Rear Adm. Ted Branch, commander of Naval Air Forces Atlantic, said in a press release. "So today is history."
The test flight, conducted on the deck of USS George H.W. Bush, took place roughly 100 miles off the coast of Virginia in the early morning. The jet-sized drone with a 62-foot wingspan, which was given the call sign "Salty Dog 502," according to Wired, hurdled down the carrier's deck and took off. The craft made two passes over the carrier before flying back to land at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., finishing a 65-minute flight.
As Spencer Ackerman, writing for Wired notes, the X-47B isn't entirely quite ground-breaking yet, though the flight is historic. The craft can be launched at sea, yes, it has proven able to successfully land in the parameters required on an aircraft carrier, and it can even navigate the sensitive airspace around an aircraft carrier at sea, but it has yet to prove it can land on an aircraft carrier at sea - one of the most difficult maneuvers for a jet pilot today.
The Navy said it will test the craft's landing ability in the next few weeks. And it's worth noting the drone isn't fully autonomous: a pilot in a remote location can always take emergency control over the aircraft in case things go awry.
If the X-47B can safely land on an aircraft carrier at sea, the U.S. will be the first nation to have an autonomous drone capable of taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier - making drone strikes a very real possibility anywhere in the world. Sleep well, world.
