The Navy launches a drone from an aircraft carrier.
The U.S. Navy recently launched an unmanned drone off of an aircraft carrier. The drone was catapulted off the coast of Virginia from the USS George H.W. Bush. It successfully landed at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River a little over an hour after the takeoff.
A vice admiral stated “we saw a small, but significant pixel in the future picture of our Navy as we begin integration of unmanned systems into arguably the most complex warfighting environment that exists today: the flight deck of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.”
In several weeks, the armed services branch plans on landing the drone on a carrier.
The recent launching was the first time an unoccupied drone had taken off from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
In another story concerning drones from earlier this year, miniature surveillance helicopters were reported to be used by British military intelligence forces in Afghanistan. The remotely controlled devices send camera footage and pictures to the troops on the ground.
