On its first flight, Boeing’s X-45A Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle prototype takes off, flies for 14 minutes, and lands at Edwards AFB, Calif., controlled by an on-board computer preprogrammed with flight instructions.
When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine described the 150 aircraft used in Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, he referenced many by name, including the F-35 and F-22 fighters and B-1 bomber. Not specified, however, were “remotely piloted drones,” among them a secretive aircraft spotted and photographed returning to Puerto…
