$1 BILLION DEFENSE CONTRACT NORTHROP GRUMMAN TO BUILD ROBOT BOMBER PROTOTYPES.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman will build three unmanned X-47B robot bomber prototypes in Palmdale under a $1 billion Defense Department contract.

Test flights of the three new computer-controlled planes, much larger than the X-47A that the corporation built with its own money, are expected to begin in 2007 in the Mojave Desert and to be succeeded by carrier flight tests for the Navy in Maryland.

Under the contract, Northrop Grumman and its subcontractors have five years to design, develop and demonstrate three aircraft and three mission-control systems under a joint military program to produce unmanned combat aircraft.

The work will involve just a few dozen workers and will not significantly add to employment in Palmdale, said Northrop Grumman spokesman Jim Hart.

The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, aims to develop unmanned aircraft that can take on very dangerous missions, such as attacking enemy radar and missile sites, as well as very dull tasks, such as surveillance missions that last for hours.

The aircraft will be able to fly themselves to their designated targets or areas to patrol, but humans will still make the key decisions, such as whether to drop a bomb or fire a missile.

DARPA officials want stealthy unmanned aircraft that can be launched either from land or an aircraft carrier and that can fly 1,500 miles carrying 4,500 pounds of weapons and electronic gear.

Northrop Grumman heads a team that includes Lockheed Martin Corp. in Palmdale and Pratt & Whitney Military Engines Division in Connecticut.

The X-47B flight demonstrations will begin in 2007 at the China Lake Naval Warfare Center near Ridgecrest, with catapult launches and arrested landings subsequently planned for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Maryland.

The Defense Department plans to spend $4 billion over the next five years to continue the development of unmanned combat jets, including Northrop Grumman's X-47 and two Boeing X-45A jets, which are being flight-tested at Edwards Air Force Base.

An unmanned X-45A jet in April took off from Edwards, found its target - a truck on a military range in the east Kern County desert - and, with the go-ahead given by a human 80 miles away, dropped an inert precision-guided bomb that hit within feet of the vehicle.

Had the bomb carried an explosive warhead, it would have blown the truck to bits, officials said.

Already, unmanned Predator reconnaissance planes have been used in both Afghanistan and Iraq to fire guided missiles at vehicles, showing the potential for future unmanned fighters.

The Predators are remotely controlled by pilots on the ground, have limited capability of carrying weapons and were not designed with a fighter-bomber role in mind.

The two X-45As being flight-tested at Edwards were built under a $256 million cost-share agreement with DARPA and the Air Force before the merger with a Navy project.

Built to investigate carrier landings by unmanned aircraft, Northrop Grumman's X-47A made only one flight - in February 2003 - demonstrating low-speed handling qualities, aerial performance and navigation performance. It also simulated performance needed for landing on a carrier flight deck by landing near a predesignated touchdown point.

The X-47A is in storage in Palmdale.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com