Unmanned Will Steps on the Runway--The X-47B and the Shadow of an Uncontrolled Future (2011-2016)

Unmanned Will Steps on the Runway--The X-47B and the Shadow of an Uncontrolled Future (2011-2016)

The X-47B is an unmanned combat aircraft developed by the American Northrop Grumman Corporation and designed as the core of the U.S. Navy-led Unmanned Combat Air Systems Demonstration Program (UCAS-D). Its greatest feature is that it is capable of fully autonomous takeoff and landing from an aircraft carrier, as well as aerial refueling without human intervention, making it the embodiment of a future weapon that was once a pipe dream.

The aircraft, which has a stealthy all-wing silhouette without a tail, flies through the sky like a ghost, undetected by radar networks, and its AI control allows it to depart from an aircraft carrier at sea, land accurately, and even fly in coordination with a refueling aircraft in the air, showing the world the high level of technological perfection. It successfully completed its first flight in 2011, conducted launch and landing tests on the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush in 2013, and accomplished the world's first aerial refueling by an unmanned aircraft in 2015.

The X-47B's basic specifications are approximately 11.6 meters in length and 18.9 meters in width, with a maximum takeoff weight of approximately 20 tons and a range of over 3,900 kilometers. Its armament included two GBU-31 JDAM precision-guided bombs, which allowed it to penetrate strategic targets without being detected by enemy radar and deliver solid strikes.

However, this technological glory was always accompanied by the fear of loss of control: while the AI on board the X-47B enhanced its ability to respond quickly on the battlefield, it also had the potential to "run amok" in the form of a deviation from the chain of command or malfunction. Who will pull the trigger on an attack without orders? Where does the "will to kill" come from in a war in which humans are absent? These questions were whispered in the ears of military personnel and ethicists with the quiet roar of the X-47B's engine.

The development was a technical success, but the cost snowballed and was eventually estimated to exceed 150 billion yen. Resistance within the Navy, which was reluctant to introduce unmanned combat aircraft, and a policy shift to the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned refueling aircraft, which was more operationally realistic, brought the X-47B program to an end in 2016.

But its legacy has not disappeared. The X-47B was the first shadow that heralded the future of man's exit from the battlefield, and that shadow still drifts silently, with a hint of unease, over the deck of the aircraft carrier.