Fight begins over Navy's armed drone program.

• Author: Insinna, Valerie

* Northrop Grumman's X-47B unmanned aerial vehicle in May took off from the USS George H.W. Bush, circled back to the vessel and skimmed its wheels across the flight deck before taking flight again. It was the first time a drone performed a touch-and-go landing aboard a moving aircraft carrier and a major step toward making UAVs a regular part of carrier operations.

With the demonstrator program ending this summer, the Navy is set to rev up the design phase for an armed, carrier-based unpiloted aircraft capable of gathering intelligence and launching attacks. While Northrop's experience with the X-47B may give the company an edge, other contractors have designs in the works and are ready to start the competition.

After years of delays, the Navy plans this summer to release a request for proposals for the preliminary design phase for its unmanned carrier launched airborne surveillance and strike aircraft, called UCLASS. The final RFP is set to be issued in early spring 2014.

Naval Air Systems Command in its presolicitation said four defense contractors--Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, Boeing and Northrop Grumman--"have credible, existing, comprehensive UCLASS design solutions" that will be ready for Navy evaluation in the third quarter of fiscal year 2014. The service plans to issue four contracts of an unspecified value to those companies for the design phase.

Officials from those companies said they are all gearing up for battle.

The eight-to-10 month preliminary design phase will not eliminate any competitors hut is intended for the Navy to "evaluate the technical maturity and progress of the designs," said Bob Ruszkowski, Lockheed Martin's director of UCLASS program development.

Draft specifications for UCLASS indicate that the final aircraft will have a "light strike capability," but will primarily be used to autonomously conduct intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance operations, Ruszkowski said.

"That provides some operational flexibility ... that right now you don't necessarily have with land-based UAVs, where you might have to ask a host nation for permission to operate there," he said.

Final requirements are still in the works, but preliminary specifications state that UCLASS should be able to carry weapons currently available to aircraft that fly from carriers, such as the 500-pound joint direct attack munition, Ruszkowski said.

It will be required to perform persistent coverage of a target at a distance of less than 1,000...