The UCAS-D X-47B successfully met the AAR demonstration objectives by completing four successful engagements of a Navy Probe/Drogue system, receiving 4,114 Ib of fuel, and remaining engaged for 11 minutes and 23 seconds. Tanker rendezvous, subsequent formation keeping, and AV-to-drogue positioning were completed satisfactorily for the purposes of this demonstration. In drogue-relative flight, adjustable drogue offsets allowed the MO to shift the AV engagement starting position to compensate for drogue motion due to the bow wake. Once the correct drogue offset values were determined for the test airspeed and altitude, the X-47B was able to successfully engage the drogue four out of five attempts. At the Refueling Hold position, fuel was successfully transferred to the X-47B fuel system. Once the fuel transfer process was completed, the X-47B safely disconnected from the drogue. The UCAS-D X-47B successfully demonstrated the technical capability necessary for autonomous Probe/Drogue aerial refueling. This technology can be used in the future to expand UAS and manned aerial refueling capabilities, and lessons learned on this test program from integrating manned and unmanned aircraft in close flight formation and in co-use airspace can be applied to future unmanned aircraft test programs.
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