Navy aircraft managers refine requirements in post-Iraq era

Sea Power, Jun 2003 by Burgess, Richard R

LM has targeted three parameters for improvement over the aircraft in the current P-3C fleet: a reduction, of approximately 34-46 percent, in maintenance man-hours per flight hour; a decrease in cost per flight hour of 12-27 percent; and an increase of about 26-37 percent in aircraft availability.

LM's design includes a glass cockpit-fitted with digital displays to replace conventional dials and gauges-with color weather radar, Traffic Collision-Avoidance System II, and a ground-proximity warning system. (The company has not yet fixed on a two- or three-man cockpit.) The four mission crew stations planned will feature liquid-crystal displays for data from electro-optical systems, synthetic-aperture radar, inverse synthetic-aperture radar, acoustic systems, electronic surveillance measures, and the Global Command and Control System. The aircraft also would be equipped with Link 11 and Link 16 satellite communications, and the Global Positioning System. LM officials envision the MMA as eventually being capable of controlling a number of UAVs.

LM also includes in its MMA concept the capability of receiving fuel in flight.

Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance Program

The Navy wants an unmanned aircraft to augment the work of its existing P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft fleet and its future Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA). The un-manned Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance craft, or BAMS, would handle several maritime-surveillance tasks and thus free the service's manned patrol aircraft for the more focused prosecution of targets.

Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations, says he wants a plane with persistence-i.e., the staying power required for total continuous situational awareness in all weather conditions. Northrop Grumman is promoting a derivative of its RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as the best aircraft for the BAMS mission. The company is building two Global Hawks for a program related to BAMS, the Navy's Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration (GHMD) program, which is designed to explore the potential of using a longrange, high-endurance, high-altitude UAV in the maritime surveillance role.

The Navy is conducting an analysis of alternatives to resolve the issues involved, and seems likely to decide on the production of BAMS-probably in 2004-before the GHMD program is completed. However, technological innovations derived from the GHMD could be transferred to BAMS aircraft as they are developed and built.

The initial operational capability of BAMS is planned for 2009. Northrop Grumman is slated to deliver two GHMD Global Hawks-the only platform available for the experiment-to the Navy in 2005. The demonstration will focus primarily on sensor payload experimentation and exposure to the fleet of the BAMS concept. Mission data will be sent from the UAV via satellite communications to a mission control element.

The 340-knot Global Hawk can detect targets at distances up to 200 kilometers, a range that program officials expect to double for the BAMS. The UAV can fly for 30 hours and has no airspace restrictions at the 60,000-foot altitude at which it operates. The RQ-4 carries a 3,000-pound sensor payload tailored to a given mission. The varying payload therefore could include electro-optical sensors, infrared sensors, synthetic-aperture radar, inverse synthetic-aperture radar, moving target indicator, and electronic signals intelligence receivers.