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| MQ-4C Triton (Click to Enlarge) |
By Richard Dudley
The United States Navy is planning to deploy Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) drones to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam with preparations for deployment projected to begin during Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14).
The MQ-4C Triton, only recently introduced, is a large, unmanned drone designed to provide enhanced maritime surveillance in coordination with the Navy’s P-3C Orion and P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance/anti-submarine aircraft.
Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base (AFB) currently operates three Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in a limited surveillance role. The RQ-4 was designed primarily to perform land surveillance duties, not long-duration ocean surveillance sweeps.
In an interview with ABC News, intelligence analyst Matthew Aid said that the RQ-4 “was designed for pinpoint imagery or eavesdropping on land targets, by over flight, or by flying obliquely up to 450 kilometers off an enemy’s coastline” while the MQ-4C “was designed for broad area maritime surveillance – following ships from high altitude.”
Read the full story at Defense Update