Northrop Grumman X-47B: The Billion Dollar Drone

Video from the channel Megaprojects about Northrop Grumman, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 13:57. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

An explainer documentary about Northrop Grumman's X-47B, an uncrewed combat aircraft designed to operate from aircraft carriers. It covers its origin, its predecessor the X-47A, and the program's end. The video opens with a sponsored segment.

According to the video, the US Navy was slow to take interest in carrier-based drones. The salty environment corrodes aircraft and a carrier's interference complicates navigation. Around the turn of the millennium, Boeing and Northrop Grumman received contracts to study the concept on paper. In 2003 the X-47A Pegasus flew, a flying wing without a horizontal stabilizer powered by a Pratt & Whitney turbofan. The tests went well, but revealed cracks in access panels, problems with weapons mounting, and the lack of an arresting hook and aerial refueling. In 2006 the Department of Defense froze the program and diverted the funding to a crewed bomber. It later resumed with new funding and the goal of reaching a near-production design.

The X-47B has folding wings and is larger than its predecessor, about 12 by 18 meters with wings deployed. It weighs 6,350 kg and can carry up to 2,000 kg in two weapons bays. It carries electro-optical and infrared sensors, synthetic aperture radar, moving target detection and lidar. It can make autonomous decisions, though always under an operator's command. Two units were built. In April 2015 it became the first drone refueled in flight. The video puts the program's total cost at about $875 million, rounded up to a billion in its nickname. In January 2017 both aircraft were placed in storage at the Palmdale plant, and Northrop Grumman stated it could not continue the program under the conditions offered.