TOTAL AIR, GROUND AND MARITIME NEWS COVERAGE
With distribution supported by
Northrop
slams cuts
that ‘cost
US lives’
A Northrop Grumman executive
yesterday stunned journalists by
criticizing by name a staff member
for the powerful House
Appropriations Committee, who he
says is responsible for cutting
$415 million. A sum enough to buy
seven RQ-4s, Ed Walby, Northrop’s
Global Hawk business development
director, said yesterday.
Walby claimed the funding cut
would result in 14,000 lost jobs
linked to the program and more
deaths of US soldiers in combat.
“It’s a good cut if you want to save
the taxpayers money, but I think
soldiers’ lives are more important
than $300 million or $400 million,”
he says.
Last night, the staff member
referred questions about Walby’s
comments to a press officer, who
was not immediately available.
This publication is not disclosing
the name of the staffer.
The House appropriators specifically
cut $270 million for three
RQ-4B Block 40s, and $50 million
more for advance procurement of
three more. The committee also
removed $85 million to buy a RQ-
4N for the USN’s broad area maritime
surveillance program.
Northrop was scheduled to deliver
the Block 40 aircraft in 2012 to
start operational testing. But testing
for a new version of the Block
20 system caused the US Air
Force to delay the evaluation until
at least fiscal 2013, Walby says.
Principal sponsor
Boeing F/A-18D Hornet may
A perform the first “hands-off”
approaches and landings to an aircraft
carrier within two years, the
US Navy says.
The F/A-18D autopilot will be
modified with the avionics and
software of the Northrop Grumman
X-47B unmanned demonstrator.
The manned Hornet will thus act
as a surrogate testbed to “wring
out” the interfaces between the aircraft
and the ship, says Capt. Martin
Deppe.
Whether the surrogate F/A-18D
actually performs a “hands-off
landing” on the carrier with two
pilots aboard has not been decided,
but the USN clearly hopes to make
that work.
“We’d like to build our way up
to the point where [the pilot] couples
up with the X-47 commands
and is able to go hands off to the
ship,” Deppe says.
Northrop is building two X-47Bs
to prove whether an unmanned aircraft
with a tailless planform can
land and operate aboard carriers.
A follow-on demonstration will
also investigate autonomous aerial
refueling.
In a related development, the US
Air Force and the Navy are in discussions
“on getting some Air Force
presence in the Navy program offices
AUGUST
12
2009
Look, Mom –
no hands!
Navy says F/A-18 may perform ‘hands-off’ carrier landings by 2011
BY STEPHEN TRIMBLE
ISSUE 2
so they can better understand what
we’re doing,” Deppe says. “In return,
we can understand what the Air
Force is doing. I think that’s going to
be the beginning of a nice partnering
relationship because we both have
similar requirements in some regards
for systems like these.”
The partnership does not include
funding at this point, Deppe says,
but, “It all begins with getting together
and starting to talk and find
out what the synergies are. Who
knows where it goes from there?”
The USAF and USN had previously
partnered on the joint unmanned
combat air systems (J-
UCAS) program, which was
canceled in 2005.
Boeing
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