Boeing X plane-X45

The origins of Boeing's X-45 Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle were until recently, shrouded in secrecy. Some tried to link the aircraft to the McDonnell Douglas X-36, acquired when McDD merged with Boeing. But the recent revelation of "Bird of Prey" makes the X-45's genesis more evident.

Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles received their "baptism by fire" in Afghanistan. RQ-1 Predator UAVs were armed with Hellfire missiles and sent into battle just seven months after their first armed test flights. The CIA used these aircraft to eliminate Taliban and Al Qaeda land vehicles that carried "high value targets" (read: enemy leaders.) They also illuminated enemy targets so they could be hit with laser-guided bombs by F/A-18 pilots.