video transcript

TV AND WEB RESTRICTIONS~**NONE Northop Grumman's X-47 B, the result of five years research and development, was hoisted aboard the USS Harry Truman, berthed at Norfolk, Virginia. The Harry Truman will be the first aircraft carrier ever to host test operations of a pilotless drone. The X-47 B is the first pilotless aircraft designed to operate from an aircraft carrier at sea and carry out pre-programmed missions autonomously. Take-off and landing are controlled by computer. So is the deployment of weapons. The aircraft is capable of conducting surveillance and strike mission within a range of nearly 3000 kilometres with in-flight refuelling also controlled by the click of a computer mouse on board ship. Land-based tests over the past eighteen months have been successful. But engineers admit the conditions at sea pose challenges the drone is yet to face.