UCLASS competition put off for another 3 years - may be more of a UCAV.

Navy delays fielding UCLASS to 2023 - 2/3/2015 - Flight Global

A decade-long pursuit of an unmanned, carrier-launched surveillance and strike aircraft (UCLASS) must wait three more years.

The Obama Administration’s fiscal 2016 budget request postpones the in-service milestone for the UCLASS aircraft by three years to FY2023.

The programme has been held up since top Pentagon officials last September rolled it into a wider study of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting systems.

A request for proposals is now scheduled for release in the second quarter of FY2016, with contract
award set for the second quarter of FY2017. The first flight milestone for the selected aircraft is planned for the third quarter of FY2020, followed by the initial operational capability milestone three years later, according to Navy budget documents released on 3 February.

Navy Pushes UCLASS Fielding Date, Air Segment Request for Proposal - USNI News
In addition to the delay in initial fielding, the service has decided to push the request for proposal of the air segment of the Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) into Fiscal Year 2016 pending the completion of an ongoing Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) comprehensive information, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) UAV review, said Rear Adm. William Lescher, the Department of the Navy’s (DoN) deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget.
“Work on the other UCLASS segments – such as the carrier segment and the control system and connectivity segment – associated programs of record – such as stand up of the integration labs and test facilities continues throughout the requirement and review process in order to reduce cost and mitigate overall program risk,” he said.

Obama Wants More Money for Military Spy Satellites, Lasers, Space Fence - Defense One
Many drone proponents were actually pleased. Paul Scharre, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security has long argued that the UCLASS was poorly conceived, overloaded with intelligence capabilities and capable of 14 hours of uninterrupted flying. Program detractors like Shawn Brimley, executive vice president of the Center for a New American Security, at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last year said that the plane should be reconsidered as more of a fighter with better weapons, even if that made it heavier. In fact, the entire fate of the aircraft carrier as a credible projection of power depended on it.
“It’s a question of ensuring that the aircraft carrier can project (and sustain) power over longer ranges. I don’t think the carrier air wing will be able to be all that effective in the future if we don’t develop something like a UCAV,” he said referring to a sizable drone that can provide real combat support to fighter jets, or that “that can complement other strike capabilities in the air wing,” and not just take pictures.