The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] is, according to Defense Update, reviving the X-45 unmanned aerial system to be used for testing and demo of advanced unmanned air system technologies, under a company funded research program code-named Phantom Ray.

First flight of the Phantom Ray is expected in December of 2010. The Boeing Phantom Works organization is employing rapid-prototyping techniques that facilitate the speed and agility needed to meet the 2010 flight schedule. Lab testing for the Phantom Ray air vehicle is scheduled for late 2009, followed by ground testing and first flight in 2010. The completion of the Phantom Ray demonstration tests are scheduled to complete before the start of carrier suitability tests of a parralel Navy program — the X-47B developed by Northrop Grumman. Under the Phantom Ray technology demonstration program, the unmanned aircraft will conduct 10 flights over a period of approximately six months, supporting missions that may include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, suppression of enemy air defenses, electronic attack, hunter/killer, and autonomous aerial refueling.

The original X-45C Unmanned Combat Aerial System (UCAS) developed by Boeing with funding from DARPA was competing with Northrop Grumman for the Joint UCAS program. Phantom Ray will pick up where the UCAS program left off in 2006 by further demonstrating Boeing's unmanned systems development capabilities in a fighter-sized, state-of-the-art aerospace system. The Boeing UCAS program started with the X-45A, which successfully flew 64 times from 2002 to 2005. Those flights included a demo exercise with two X-45A aircraft that marked the first unmanned, autonomous multi vehicle flight under the control of a single pilot. Boeing also designed a larger UCAS aircraft, the X-45C, which will serve as the basis for the Phantom Ray demonstrator. The X-47B UCAS is produced by Northrop Grumman and industry teammates including Dell, Eaton Aerospace, GE Aviation, GKN Aerospace, Goodrich, Hamilton Sundstrand, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Moog, Parker Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Rockwell Collins and Wind River.