X-47B Conducts Taxi Testing on USS Harry S Truman Deck



By Brett Davis

The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator taxied for the first time on board an aircraft carrier on 9 Dec., controlled by a new arm-mounted control display unit used by UCAS deck operators.

“With the CDU, we followed the aircraft director’s signals to move the aircraft left or right, over the arresting wire, to and from the catapults and to various spotting positions,” says  Gerrit Everson, one of the operators controlling the vehicle, in a Navy press release. “These tests proved that we can taxi the X-47B with the precision that an aircraft carrier’s flight deck requires.”

The operation on the USS Harry S Truman marked the first time that Northrop Grumman’s X-47B has operated on a carrier at sea.

“We are bringing the most advanced technologies together to make this a successful evolution,” says Lt. Anthony Lee, Truman’s flight deck officer. “This type of innovation hasn’t been seen since the first time an aircraft landed aboard a carrier, which puts us further ahead as a military.”

The X-47B is scheduled to complete its onboard taxi testing before Truman returns to its homeport in Naval Station Norfolk.