UCAS Misses A Flight Due To GOES Failure

Carrier-based flight trials of the U.S. Navy’s X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System-Demonstrator (UCAS-D) aboard the USS George H.W. Bush were briefly brought to a halt last week due to an unlikely frequency-sharing issue between the air vehicle and officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is trying to fix a problem with a faulty weather satellite.

The U.S. Navy was able to restart flights of the Northrop Grumman X-47B demonstrator quickly after a brief stand down, which was necessitated because priority use of the Wallops Island facility in Virginia, the UCAS-D backup landing site, was given to NOAA as it worked to recover control of its Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-13.

Trials are now complete and the X-47B performed nine touch-and-go landings on the carrier deck, according to Capt. Jamie Engdahl, Navy program manager.

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