By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy needs to "get going" on a new, unmanned armed aircraft that can operate from the deck of an aircraft carrier, U.S. Chief of Naval of Operations Admiral John Richardson said on Monday.
He said the Navy's long-delayed Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) effort was a "prime candidate" for a new approach aimed at speeding up acquisition programs and benefiting from field experience.
"That's a prime candidate for trying to get something out there ... so that we can learn how to operate an unmanned aerial vehicle from a carrier," Richardson said after an event hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute. He added that the new aircraft would also "serve a real purpose ... beyond experimentation."
A U.S. Navy official last month told Reuters the Navy would map out the future of the new carrier-based drone as part of its fiscal 2017 budget proposal, with an initial focus on surveillance, the approach long favored by the Navy.
Northrop Grumman Corp, which makes the X-47B unmanned, unarmed plane that has been tested on U.S. carriers, Boeing Corp, Lockheed Martin Corp and privately held General Atomics have spent tens of millions of dollars to prepare for the competition, only to see it delayed repeatedly.
Richardson said unmanned vehicles - for the air, the surface and underwater - are a key priority for the U.S. Navy and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who he said was "adamant about getting this moving."
The UCLASS program, one of few new U.S. aircraft programs, has been on hold pending a Pentagon-wide review of intelligence and surveillance programs that has taken much longer than expected.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Dan Grebler)