Navy Fighter/Attack UAV request for proposal pushed back. Is the Navy UAV what the F-35 was suppose to be?

via USNI News.

The U.S. Navy has pushed back the release date again for a draft request for proposals (RfP) for its Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) aircraft program, service officials told USNI News.
“The UCLASS draft RfP is scheduled for release by the end of this quarter,” wrote Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) spokeswoman Jamie Cosgrove in a Tuesday statement to USNI News.
“The program team is exercising due diligence and great discipline in the formulation of the draft RFP and planned evaluation criteria to ensure the government’s objectives are best met. They are still on track to release a final air segment RFP for the technology development phase in third quarter FY [fiscal year] 14 and contract award in early FY15.”
According to sources familiar with the program, the Navy is revisiting the issue of performance requirements versus cost, which is likely to lead to yet another revision to the UCLASS’ specifications and draft RfP evaluation criteria.

Read the entire article here.

There is one other passage in this article that bears highlighting here though...

“The end state is an autonomous aircraft capable of precision strike in a contested environment, and it is expected to grow and expand its missions so that it is capable of extended range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic warfare, tanking, and maritime domain awareness.”

This airplane will be far more capable when fully developed than the F-35 could ever dream of being.  Quite honestly this whole delay and the author's point about some wanting the Navy to take a time out on the program smacks of the F-35 mafia playing games with the budget once again.

Everything must die so that the F-35 can live.  But in the end they won't win.

A cheaper, longer ranged, multi-multi-mission unmanned airplane will enter advanced development at the same time the F-35 is entering extremely limited service.  By that time a full picture of the real cost of the F-35 will be known and an alternative like the Navy is proposing will be too good to ignore.

Ironically the Navy UAV could end up being the "F-35 that the F-35 was suppose to be".  If it has exportable stealth, if it is affordable, and if it delivers on all the missions that the Navy foresees then the USAF will be forced to adopt it by Congress and allies will be clamoring for it.

The Navy UAV.

What the F-35 was suppose to be.