改变一切：美国无人机展亮点大放送

下一代海军无人战斗机

    今年夏天，美国海军与私人公司诺斯罗普格鲁曼公司携手推出了X－47B无人战斗机，并成功在航母甲板上进行了起降试验，引起举世震动。这款无人机将于明年结束试飞阶段。随着基础技术已经到位，为美国海军打造能部署在航母舰队上的无人战斗机部队的竞争已经正式开始。

    诺斯罗普格鲁曼公司显然会凭借X-47B的某些型号暂时领先，但是其它竞争者也已经加入了这场竞赛。比如波音公司（Boeing ）就计划对现有一款无人机的概念机进行升级。通用原子公司（General Atomics，该公司生产的“收割者”和“捕食者”无人机已经部署在阿富汗、巴基斯坦、也门等地）也计划推出自己的设计。洛克希德马丁公司（AUVSILockheed Martin）也在今年的AUVSI展会上向观众展示了自家无人机的概念机的形象（上图）。美国海军也将对自动飞行技术进行大量研究（并且抛出一笔利润丰厚的生产合同作为激励）。因此，能够在航母上部署的无人侦察机和战斗机项目未来无疑是一个值得继续关注的领域。

The next generation of Navy combat drones

    The Navy made a media splash this summer when, alongside private-sector partner Northrop Grumman, it launched and recovered the first autonomous combat jet from the deck of an aircraft carrier. But the X-47B, as the experimental aircraft is known, will conclude test flights sometime next year. Now, with the baseline technology in place, the real competition to build the Navy's carrier- and combat-capable UAS fleet of the future gets underway in earnest.

    Though Northrop Grumman will remain in that race with some variant of the X-47B, other contenders are jumping into the competition. Boeing (BA, Fortune 500) plans to update one of its concept UAS. General Atomics (maker of the Reaper and Predator UAS currently deployed in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere) plans to put forward a design, and at AUVSILockheed Martin (LMT, Fortune 500) gave attendees their most detailed look yet at its emerging concept UAS (pictured above). The Navy is about to kick off a flurry of research into autonomous flight capability (with a lucrative production contract as incentive), making the upcoming Unmanned Carrier-Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program a space to keep an eye on.