WEBSTER FIELD, Md. — The U.S. Navy has pushed the first flight of its Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) out several weeks so it can examine anomalies that arose during recently completed proof-load testing.

Capt. Marty Deppe, Navy UCAS program manager, said the anomalies discovered will require a second look, but he stressed they do not yet seem to require a redesign. “This is fairly normal for a new design,” he said here Aug. 10 on the flight demonstration day of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) show. “I’m not too worried about it.”

Deppe said although first flight has been pushed from mid-November to later in that month and possibly into December, he does not anticipate a cost overrun. “We’re tracking pretty well. In any program you budget for a certain matter of [issues],” he said.

Deppe said the Navy laid out an aggressive program schedule with an eye to keeping costs down. “That’s why our pace is continuously running,” he said. “We said we would fly in late 2009 back in 2007 and we’re right on that line.”

Deppe attributed the proof-load testing anomalies to the composites used on the airframe. Aluminum or metal construction would have been “legacy aircraft technology,” he said. “We wanted to take a look at what composites bring to the table for a carrier-based aircraft.” When composites are placed on a proof-load fixture, however, Deppe said the materials’ behavior may be different than anticipated. The system’s control surfaces and edges are built from composites. Those will be removed from the test fixture and run through proof-load testing again independently.

“We’re pretty confident things will be fine,” Deppe said.

Image: Northrop Grumman