Outlook for the US Navy’s UCLASS Programme
The Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) website has already raised the
issue of naval unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
. The American Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) programme is worth examining in more detail, since it is the most curious and potentially promising programme in the field of “strategic” naval UAVs. ...
... reconnaissance drones find their place on the deck of the ships. One such drone is a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft ScanEagle produced by a Boeing subsidiary Insitu, Inc. The ScanEagle entered service with the U.S. Navy in 2005, and a number of other fleets operate the UAV successfully. In 2012, Singapore
acquired a number of ScanEagle
unmanned aircraft systems for its Navy. By July 2011 ScanEagle systems had accumulated more than
56 thousand combat sorties
and 500 thousand combat flight hours. The UAV had flown nearly ...