Boeing's upcoming X-45C unmanned aircraft may perform an aerial refueling demonstration as early as 2007 in conjunction with the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Autonomous Aerial Refueling (AAR) effort, according to Darryl Davis, Boeing's Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program manager.

AFRL partnered with Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2002 on the AAR effort, with the refueling of unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) such as the X-45C in mind (DAILY, Aug. 21, 2003).

"I think their schedule says in roughly '07 they would be ready to do a simulated hookup with a tanker using a surrogate airplane," Davis said in a press briefing at the Air Force Association's Air & Space Conference in Washington Sept. 15. "We are looking at what would it take to modify one of these [X-45Cs] to literally do it with this airplane."

Boeing began building the follow-on X-45C at company facilities in St. Louis in June and the center fuselage is more or less complete, according to Davis. Boeing has conducted more than 30 flights with its smaller predecessor, the X-45A, which was developed according to the requirements of the Air Force's UCAV program. J-UCAS represents the merger of the formerly separate Air Force and Navy UCAV efforts.

Boeing will build three X-45Cs in the next phase of the J-UCAS program, while Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin will produce three comparably sized X-47Bs. Both teams will be supported by DARPA through an operational assessment (OA) set to last roughly from 2007 to 2009. The services will then determine their respective acquisition plans based on the OA demonstrations.

DARPA, which manages the J-UCAS effort, is requiring both contractor teams to work on a common operating system that would be capable of controlling either team's vehicle. DARPA is expected to select an "integrator broker" to manage development of the operating system within the next month, according to Davis.