This looks like a scene from a sci-fi game or movie, but it’s actually a photo from one of the latest tests of the X-47B unmanned combat aircraft on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The US Navy is getting really close to the future, people: combat drones launched automatically from…
The Northrop Grumman X-47B carrier-launched drone really feels like the future of aviation in this image taken on board the USS Harry Truman. And, while it looks like some alien spaceship from a sci-fi show, these beasts will completely replace those F-18s in a couple of decades.
As the role of UAVs in the US military expands, the demands placed on these unmanned platforms grow as well. One of the most important new abilities these autonomous flyers must have is the ability to land atop a thin strip of tarmac rolling on the high seas. And that’s…