Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike
[1] After debate over whether the UCLASS should primarily focus on stealthy bombing or scouting, the Pentagon instead changed the program entirely into the Carrier-Based Aerial-Refueling System (CBARS) to create a UAV for aerial refueling duties to extend the range of manned fighters,[2] which led to the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray.
[4] On June 9, 2011, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) issued JROCM 087–11, a memorandum approving the UCLASS Initial Capabilities Document (ICD).
“The reduction in strike capability of the Navy’s next generation carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle was born of fiscal realities, said Dyke Weatherington, the Pentagon’s director of unmanned warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).”[7] The Navy announced 14 August 2013 that four Preliminary Design Review (PDR) contracts were awarded for the UCLASS air vehicle segment.
[15] The Navy hinted at the possibility of using the UCLASS in air-to-air engagements as a "flying missile magazine" to supplement the F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-35C Lightning II as a type of "robotic wingman."
Its weapons bay could be filled with AIM-120 AMRAAMs and be remotely operated by an E-2D Hawkeye or F-35C flight leader, using their own sensors and human judgment to detect, track, and direct the UAV to engage an enemy aircraft.
On 18 February 2014, Congressman Randy Forbes wrote a letter to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus advocating for the UCLASS to have aerial refueling, survivability, and payloads to make it effective in future contested air environments.
Forbes requested the aircraft have broad-band stealth to survive integrated air defense systems and have the payload capacity to simultaneously support land and sea missions.
[17] Navy officials expressed concern that the original requirements of the UCLASS program had been degraded, as the original concept called for a stealthy, carrier-based, long-range unmanned combat aerial system (UCAS) with a large payload that could be refueled in-flight, but the altered version called for a UCAS that was modestly stealthy and emphasised intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions over lightly contested airspace, with a light secondary strike mission and no air refueling requirement, promoting affordability over survivability and endurance; the revised requirements were written to fill a gap in persistent, sea-based ISR.
It was planned to weigh 70,000 to 80,000 lb (32,000 to 36,000 kg), about the size of the F-14 Tomcat and much larger than the X-47B, and be around 68 ft (21 m) in length, longer than the F/A-18 Super Hornet, with endurance potentially up to 14 hours.
Other roles were being considered such as an aerial refueling platform to extend the range of fighters, transferring 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) of fuel and still staying airborne for up to 7.5 hours.
Though classified, available details showed original UCLASS specifications of continuously providing two ISR orbits at range over uncontested airspace with a light strike capability to eliminate targets of opportunity.
[29] In July 2014, JROC launched a review of the UCLASS program in response to congressional criticism that Navy requirements were too narrowly focused to meet future mission threats.
[32] It has been speculated that one of the reasons for making the UCLASS more ISR-centric was to prevent it from taking the role of the F/A-XX, the manned future fighter replacement for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
[34] In the Navy's FY 2016 budget request, the planned fielding date of the UCLASS was pushed from 2020 to 2022–2023, and the RFP was again delayed as a result of the ongoing review of what roles the aircraft will perform.
It will likely be a less-stealthy wing–body–tail configuration that will limit its ability to operate in contested airspace, be more sensitive to cost considerations, and favor Boeing and General Atomics submissions.
