US Navy Aircraft Carrier Gets First Drone Command Centre

The US Navy has installed a drone command centre onboard an aircraft carrier which will be used for refueling aircraft in the future.

The center was installed aboard the San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson last week; the next one will be placed aboard the Norfolk-based USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2017, according to the Navy.

The command centers will be used for a drone that will refuel aircraft and conduct intelligence and surveillance operations. The MQ-XX which is still under development will be the Navy’s first carrier-based unmanned aircraft.

The drone is being designed to replace the F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet in their roles as aerial tankers. “Doing so will preserve the fighter jets’ flight hours for their primary missions”, Vice Adm. Paul A. Grosklags, commander of Naval Air Systems Command said last week.

The Navy said the MQ-XX is scheduled to be operational in the mid-2020s.

“Having a UAV asset that provides persistent, potentially 24/7, surveillance coverage for the strike group is a game changer,” Rear Adm. James Loeblein, commander of Carrier Strike Group 1, said in a statement. “Putting additional ISR capacity into the warfare commander’s hands increases the flexibility and warfare capability of the entire strike group.”

The MQ-XX is the result of testing the X-47B, which made history in 2013 when it became the first unmanned aircraft to take off and land on a carrier, the Norfolk-based USS George H.W. Bush. In 2015, the X-47B also conducted an autonomous mid-air refueling.