A modified F/A-18D Hornet fighter plane recently landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower controlled by linked computers on the ship and on the plane. A pilot and a flight engineer were on the plane but did not touch the controls during the landing.

‘Hands-free’ landing on Eisenhower is step toward unmanned naval flight

Are the days of “Top Gun” coming to an end? Not yet, but the Navy moved a step closer to a new era of unmanned carrier-based aerial combat recently aboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to a story in The Virginian-Pilot. 

Capt. Jaime Engdahl, program manager, said the development doesn’t mean the end of manned naval flight is anywhere on the horizon. He says the Navy hopes to fill in the “gaps” in such missions as intelligence-gathering. 

Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, notes that the Air Force’s Predator drones, originally designed for surveillance, are now used for dropping bombs. There is no reason Navy drones couldn’t be used the same way or for air-to-air combat, he says.

Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing along the article.