Could The Pentagon’s X-37B Become an Attack Space Drone?

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) An attack space drone may sound a bit like a vessel from Star Wars, but it might actually be possible in the real world, based on a space “drop” and the successful flight of Boeing’s X-37 robotic spacecraft.

Called the Orbital Test Vehicle, the space robot is thrust into space by a launch vehicle and then lands as a space vehicle upon re-entering the atmosphere.

X-37B: What We Know Right Now

In the most recent test, the U.S. Space Force’s X-37B successfully de-orbited and landed at a NASA facility at Kennedy Space Center in November of 2022, according to an essay published by U.S. Space Force News.

Beginning with a “drop test” in 2006, the Orbital Test Vehicle has been boosted beyond the earth’s atmosphere and returned several times, recently reaching a total of 908 days in orbit during a mission from 2020 to 2022.

X-37B Variant

Beginning as a NASA project, the OTV has primarily been an exploratory scientific mission to study the details and limitations of space flight. Its promise for military use, however, more fully involved the Pentagon as the technology matured. Now, with this most recent success, the X-37B variant is essentially operating as if it were a space drone, able to conduct surveillance, gather data from beyond the earth’s atmosphere, and potentially be adapted into an armed military platform.

Video Above: Air War in 2050 – Air Force Research Lab Commander on Hypersonics