Message posted by 10-7 paramedic on June 05, 2008 at 3:36:03 PST:

I'd bet this is why all the new arrays! Pilotless flight / approach testing!
"Northrop Grumman has begun installing systems in the first X-47B under the $635 million US Navy unmanned combat air system demonstrator (UCAS-D) contract won in August. The aircraft is scheduled to fly in 2009 and make its first autonomous carrier landing in 2011.
"It's 100% structurally complete," says Scott Winship, Northrop's UCAS-D programme manager. "The aircraft is out of the jig and over to paint and we're doing subsystems installation and check-out." (11/07)
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/11/26/219820/northrop-grumman-begins-testing-x-47b-ucas-d-software.html

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