PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC
Analysis will focus on performance criteria and optimum sea/land-based combinations
The US Navy has launched an analysis of alternatives (AoA) to determine its planned Board Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) requirements, as naval planners work to refine the configuration of its two interim Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned air vehicles (UAV) and the goals of the planned Global Hawk maritime demonstration.
The privately contracted AoA is intended to produce a set of key performance parameters and a recommendation on the best type or mix of land- and carrier-based UAVs for BAMS by April. "What we're looking at is Global Hawk, [General Atomics MQ-9A] Predator B, UCAV-N [naval unmanned combat air vehicle] or a new-start UAV programme. What we're not looking at are manned platforms," says Paul Achille, deputy programme manager Navy UAV office.
Planning calls for BAMS system development and demonstration to begin in fiscal year 2004, with initial operational capability (IOC) by FY2008. This tentative schedule is subject to trade-offs, including combining part or all of the mission with that of the UCAV-N.
Currently, UCAV-N initial development is due to start in 2004, but service entry is not targeted before 2015.
The principal factor guiding BAMS timing is the manned Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) replacement for the USN's Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion, for which the request for proposals for the initial component advanced development phase was due for release by 6 September. "There is a need to field BAMS before the end of the decade as the number of P-3s begin to draw down. MMA IOC is 2012," says Achille.
BAMS is intended as an adjunct to MMA and the mix of manned and unmanned platforms and different basing modes will be addressed by the Global Hawk maritime demonstration. The navy will receive initial funding in the FY2003 budget to order two RQ-4As as part of a larger US Air Force Global Hawk purchase for delivery in 2005. BAMS experimentation is expected to include vehicle and payload control from air and sea platforms, and possibly a UAV mothership deploying smaller vehicles.
The initial vehicle will be completed to Spiral 2 configuration with software modifications for improved real-time payload control, which was first demonstrated during the Tandem Thrust Global Hawk deployment to Australia.
The second RQ-4A will be equipped with a 360°-scan Northrop Grumman APY-6 radar with moving target indicator/inverse synthetic aperture modes, along with a turreted infrared/electro-optical sensor and electronic support measures equipment.
Source: Flight International
