US Navy aims for majority of carrier-based aircraft to be pilotless5 April 2023
the service has set a target for 60% of the aircraft in its future air carrier wings to be pilotless – a goal that will transform the navy and require acquisition of new aircraft types.
The timeline for that transition remains unclear, but achieving the goal will require major changes to carrier air wings.
That concept was among topics discussed by senior USN aviators on 4 April at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space conference near Washington, DC. Admirals outlined strategic goals that included improving maintenance practices, keeping more aircraft flight-ready and transitioning the fleet to include more uncrewed aircraft.
After years of heavy use and degradation, every aircraft type in the USN fleet is either new, recently acquired, in the process of being replaced or undergoing modernisations and overhauls.
The services USN/USMC multi-decade modernisation effort has left the navy’s air fleet more capable than ever. “We’re in a really good position to fight this next conflict, wherever it may be.”
But greater naval air-power changes are coming.
Rear Admiral Andrew Loiselle, the USN’s director of air warfare, notes the service is developing or experimenting with “numerous unmanned systems” – aircraft that will transform the composition of the navy’s carrier air wings. Examples include MQ-25 Stingray and MQ-58 Valkyrie collaborative combat aircraft (CCA).
The USN is also studying the MQ-28 Ghost Bat – another CCA programme.
Such aircraft align with the USN’s “Air Wing of the Future” plan, which includes the 60% pilotless-aircraft target. The timeline for that transition remains unclear, but achieving the goal will require major changes to carrier air wings, Loiselle adds.
“We are going to look different then we do today. We’re no longer going to have a force that has 44 [manned] strike fighters on the deck.”
Those changes will not only affect the hangars and flight decks, Loiselle says entire carrier strike groups – which include support ships carrying long-range offensive missiles and providing air defence and logistics support – will be altered to facilitate a mostly autonomous air wing.
Notably, the shift may bring tighter cooperation between the USN and US Air Force. Loiselle says the services are “very close” to an agreement under which navy and air force CCAs will be interoperable with both services’ crewed aircraft.
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