The U.S. Navy is ramping up a major new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) effort that promises to generate significant job opportunities in a defense budget climate where such new programs are becoming rare.
A wide range of personnel will be needed to make the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance Strike (UCLASS)aircraft a reality, including experts in engineering, logistics, manufacturing and maintenance, said Jamie Cosgrove, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).
“It’s hard to pinpoint a number at this point, but we anticipate hundreds of jobs being created for multiple facets of this program,” Cosgrove said.
UCLASS, which is intended to operate from aircraft carriers, will provide “persistent” intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and also perform targeting and strike. It will share sensor data and command-and-control information with other aircraft, as well as ships and ground troops, according to Pentagon budget documents. UCLASS will support missions “ranging from permissive counter-terrorism operations, to missions in contested environments, to providing enabling capabilities for high-end area denied operations,” the Navy said.
Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman – Vying for New Contract
The multi-billion-dollar program formally entered the competitive phase April 17 when the Navy sent a draft request for proposals (RFP) to the four firms that had already received contracts to do preliminary design work for UCLASS. The companies are Boeing, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The draft RFP is “for official use only” and was not publicly disclosed.
The document will be followed by an industry day in about 30 to 45 days and a final RFP this summer, Cosgrove said. A contract award is expected in mid-fiscal year 2015. The Navy plans to pick one design to develop, build, fly and deploy.
To help pave the way for UCLASS, the Navy has conducted flights tests with the X-47B demonstrator, a bat-like, unmanned plane built by Northrop Grumman. The X-47B conducted its first night flight April 10 over Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
