MQ-4C Triton BAMS for RAAF

[Rod Farquhar]

The RAAF is likely to get the MQ-4C Triton ( messenger of the sea) for Maritime Surveilance task.

The Australian Ministers for Defence and Defence Materiel announced May 15 that the government of Australia will enter into a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) planning case with the U.S. Navy for the MQ-4C Triton Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).

The FMS planning case will help Australian defense officials assess the applicability of Triton’s capabilities to their high-altitude, long-endurance UAS for maritime patrol and other surveillance requirements.

According to a press release issued by Australia’s Minister for Defence Stephen Smith and Minister for Defence Materiel Dr. Mike Kelly on May 15, “The goal is to provide long-range, long-endurance maritime surveillance and response and an effective anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capability.”

Australia’s interest in the U.S. Navy’s persistent maritime surveillance unmanned systems development dates back to 2007 when it participated in the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAS pre-system development and demonstration under a cooperative partner project agreement.

“Our team is eager to partner with Australia on this FMS planning case involving the MQ-4C Triton UAS,” said Capt. Jim Hoke, the Navy’s Persistent Maritime (PMA-262) UAS program office here. “The development of a system based on the Triton UAS would significantly improve Australian and US capabilities in the region, enhancing our joint ability to respond to regional challenges, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”

As an adjunct to the manned P-8A, the U.S. Navy’s Triton will be able to cover more than 2.7 million square miles in a single mission. Its capability to perform persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance with a range of 2,000 nautical miles will allow P-8A, P-3C and EP-3E aircraft to focus on their core missions, adding to the capability of the Navy’s Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Force.

Australia is a cooperative partner with the U.S. Navy in the development and production of the P-8A.

NAVAIR press release

This post has been edited by Rod Farquhar on May 17 2013, 10:08 AM

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[Warhawk]

That could link in with this then:

The Air Force's Heron Remotely Piloted Aircraft capability recently moved to a new home from Air Combat Group (ACG) to Surveillance and Response Group (SRG).
A handover/ takeover ceremony took place at the Heron No 5 Flight (5FLT) headquarters at RAAF Base Amberley, attended by the Officer Commanding No 82 Wing Group Captain (GPCAPT) Geoff Harland, Officer Commanding No 92 Wing GPCAPT Craig Heap and Commanding Officer of 5FLT Wing Commander (WGCDR) Jonathan McMullan, along with the 5FLT team.

WGCDR McMullan, who has completed two rotations with the Heron Detachment in Afghanistan as Detachment Commander, welcomed the change and said it was an historic milestone with the changing from one Force Element Group to another. “The Heron has done more than 16,000 flying hours in Afghanistan and Woomera in South Australia since 2010,” he said. “We have three Remotely Piloted Aircraft at Kandahar Airfield flying dual operations and one in Woomera for all our ab initio flying training. We view Heron as a mature capability that is operating as safely as possible in its current tasking and configuration. “The Heron is providing a superior intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) product to Australian troops and coalition forces on a daily basis, routinely flying 20-plus-hour missions.”

WGCDR McMullan said the change from ACG to SRG was largely due to the Growler project standing up in ACG requiring some restructure within the Force Element Group. “There are some great synergies between Heron’s current ISR capability in Afghanistan and SRG, largely due to the AP-3Cs significant and stellar record conducting ISR in the MEAO since 2003,” he said.

5FLT’s capability was stood up under ACG back in January 2010 due to SRG and Air Lift Group’s already high operational tempo at the time. ACG was deemed to be the most suitable Force Element Group to deploy Heron into theatre rapidly. “Through the resourcing of high quality aviators, 5FLT was able to get initial crews trained and into Afghanistan in a very short time, resolving certain operational airworthiness concerns,” WGCDR McMullan said. “Now that 5FLT is at that mature stage and training has been significantly improved, we are looking forward to our future in SRG and helping develop plans for Air Force’s Remotely Piloted Aircraft ISR capability beyond Afghanistan.”


Source DOD

Meanwhile: Oz Buyer be ware!!!


Northrop Grumman

Per USA Defence Department 11/04/2013

The Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton, meanwhile, has been delayed by one year, Mulloy says. There are two technical issues with the machine which forced the USN to push back funding for the unmanned aircraft, he says. One problem is with the aircraft's ruddervators and the other involves difficulties with integrating the mission computer.

Both Triton test aircraft, SDD-1 and SDD-2, are in the "final stages of testing," says Miller. They have completed taxi and ground tests, he adds.

"We're very close to the first flight [of SDD-1]," says Miller. "After this we'll go through envelope expansion flights and eventually, at the end of this year if everything goes as planned, the SDD aircraft will be delivered to the [US] navy's test area at Patuxent River in Maryland."

SDD-1 has no sensors fitted but is equipped to test aerodynamic loads and other aspects of the aircraft's flight envelope. Its sister aircraft, SDD-2, will eventually be kitted out with "some sensors," says Miller. The Triton's future multifunction active sensor radar is already being tested aboard another platform.

Northrop sees the MQ-4C as suitable for Phase 1B of Australia's AIR 7000 requirement for a multimission unmanned aerial system. It has displayed a full scale mock-up of the Triton at both the 2011 and 2013 Avalon air shows.

Meanwhile in Germany...................Germany has cancelled its planned €1 billion ($1.3 billion) procurement of five Northrop Grumman Euro Hawk unmanned air vehicles, citing significant barriers to certificating the type for flights in civil airspace.
The country's defence ministry said on 15 May that the programme faced "significant certification difficulties", which made it impossible to operate the high-altitude, long-endurance type "reliably and without [safety] concerns".

A full-scale demonstrator of the RQ-4 Global Hawk-derived type was delivered to Manching air base, near Munich, for test flights in 2011. If these had proved successful, Germany planned to buy four additional Euro Hawks for its air force.

However, the trials revealed problems with the aircraft's flight control system and Northrop declined to share technical data to enable the German certification authorities to better understand the aircraft, says the defence ministry.

The German government says it has spent some €562 million on the project so far, including €54 million on test flights. However, it expects to be able to use Cassidian-developed surveillance equipment costing €250 million on another, likely manned, platform.

Germany is quick, however, to reiterate its support for UAVs and says it plans to use reconnaissance and armed types in future.


:blink:

[Brendan Cowan]

Just an artist impression image of an RAAF Triton.

The serial is ficticous too as A57 has been allotted for this type not A48.

ADF-Serials Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton Page

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[Luig]

Youse can't be trite 'bout TRITONS - MORE ON WAY.

https://www.janes.com/article/95528/dod-to-...s-for-australia

DoD to contract additional Triton UAVs for Australia 15 Apr 2020 Gareth Jennings

"The US Department of Defense (DoD) is to issue Northrop Grumman with a sole-source contract to supply Australia with two more MQ-4C Triton high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

A notification posted on the US government's beta.sam.gov website on 14 April noted that Australia is to add to the one Triton UAV for which a contract has already been placed by exercising its options for two more as part of a wider US Navy (USN) procurement plan. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) plans to field a total of six such vehicles.

"This contract modification establishes two unfunded option lines for five additional MQ-4C unmanned aircraft [three for the USN and two for the RAAF] and two additional main operating bases [one for the USN and one for the RAAF] and related production support, to include but not limited to: the procurement of long-lead material and associated effort; systems engineering; production management; integrated logistics support; and associated technical, administrative, and financial data," the notification stated.

Australia currently has the long-lead items for the one Triton under contract, to be built as part of the USN's wider fiscal year (FY) 2020 low-rate initial-production (LRIP) Lot 5 (which also includes one main operating base [MOB] and one forward operating base [FOB] for the country, as well as three Tritons, one MOB, and one FOB for the USN). In February the DoD said a second would be contracted shortly, which would account for one of the two options now to be exercised. According to the DoD notification, this second and a third Triton will be included in FY 2021 LRIP Lot 6 (along with one MOB and one FOB for Australia, and three Tritons, one MOB and one FOB for the USN). The notification did not say to which production lot the final three Tritons for Australia would be allotted, though it did note that "additional [UAVs] may be procured within LRIP Lot 5 and/or LRIP Lot 6"."

This post has been edited by Luig on Apr 16 2020, 01:08 PM