They’re not going to design a manned strike fighter for the Navy’s new sixth-generation F/A-XX concept. Instead, they are already building a “first-generation” unmanned combat aircraft, say Northrop Grumman officials.

The demonstrator is based on the company’s X-47B, but researchers are actually assembling an internal system that could fit in a variety of airframes, says Scott Winship, vice president and program manager of Navy UCAS. The aircraft would incorporate “marinized low observability” and air-to-air refueling as well as advanced sensors, targeting and weapons.

With surprising candor, Winship identified important new capabilities for the unmanned strike aircraft including boost-phase intercept (BPI) of enemy ballistic missiles soon after launch and the carriage of new, compact, directed-energy weapons. He says the options will include both laser and high-power microwave (HPM) weapons. Lasers are seen as a key BPI weapon while HPM is critical to electronic attack.

“Broadband, all-aspect stealth is [part of the] next generation” a need that is reflected in the cranked-kite, tailless X-47B design, Winship says. “It is also sensors – signals and electronic intelligence – and directed energy.” Conformal antenna arrays – eight on the top side of the aircraft and eight below – will also contribute to low observability and provide 360-degree coverage.

In addition, a new generation of air-to-air missiles are being studied as part of the BPI mission as well as directed energy and rechargeable weapons that could be carried as palletized units sized for the weapons bays’ 4,500 lb. payload carrying capability. Alternative weapons bay doors would be fitted with apertures for the directed energy weapons.

Company designers are looking for an aircraft that can fly 50-100 hr. missions and that can go into the toughest, fourth zone of enemy air defenses. Navy and Marine Corps electronic warfare requirements officials later described the mission as “stand-in [jamming, electronic attack or strike] within a surface-to-air missile’s no escape zone.”