The Navy and prime contractor Northrop Grumman successfully catapult the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator from the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush. It flew for 65 minutes and then landed at NAS Patuxent River, Md.
Seeking to make life harder for a potential adversary like China, the Air Force wants more airfields in more locations, giving the service more freedom to operate in combat. But runways serve little purpose if they are damaged beyond use. The Air Force recently conducted a “beta test” to figure…