U.S. Air Force (USAF) and U.S. Navy (USN) efforts to develop fixed-wing unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) continue, but a Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program office is now managing them. Led by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the combined five-year, $4 billion program still aim to demonstrate the feasibility of using UCAVs for suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD), persistent surveillance, reconnaissance and precision strike. Previously, the USAF, USN and U.S. Army had been working with DARPA on three distinctly different UCAV programs, each addressing individual service desires. But the development of dedicated UCAVS went down an unexpected path late last year. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) ordered that the Air Force and Navy unmanned combat air vehicle efforts be combined under a joint program office patterned largely after the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project. While the plan merges the Air Force and Navy UCAV activities, the Army's Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) program remains separate, but is likely to leverttge technology developed by the J-UCAS effort.
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