Boeing X-46

The Boeing X-46 was a proposed unmanned combat air vehicle, planned as the carrier-based naval counterpart of the Boeing X-45 that was being developed for the United States Air Force. In June 2000 two technology demonstrator contracts were awarded, one to Boeing for the X-46A and one to Northrop Grumman for the X-47A, with the Navy and DARPA as the sponsors of the naval effort. In April 2003 the Air Force and Navy efforts were merged into the joint DARPA, Air Force and Navy J-UCAV program, later renamed J-UCAS, and the X-46 program was ended as redundant. A Navy-only N-UCAS demonstrator program began in the summer of 2006, and Boeing planned to reuse the X-46 and X-45 work to propose the X-45N for it. The X-46 therefore stayed a paper design and never reached flight.