46 | Flight International | 17-23 February 2015 flightglobal.com
AUSTRALIA
SPECIAL REPORT
customers are also waiting for the navy and
Northrop Grumman to continue working kinks
out of the development schedule, which was
re-baselined in December 2013. The shift af-
fected overall programme scheduling and
pushed back the deadline to begin low-rate ini-
tial production (LRIP), according to a report
from the Pentagon’s director of operational test
and evaluation (DOT&E). Re-baselining also
provided additional time for risk-reduction
testing prior to operational assessment, the re-
port says.The multifunction active sensor aboard the UAS has already been extensively tested
The nation is likely to need between six and eight Tritons to be bought through the foreign military sales process
Australia and other potential
customers are waiting for
Northrop Grumman to work
kinks out of the developmentNorthrop GrummanNorthrop Grumman“Ground and lab testing of system com-
munications and datalink architectures are
producing early deficiency reports in sup-
port of efforts to improve system maturity
before mission system flight testing begin,”
the report says.
DOT&E calls for the navy to complete op-
erational assessment before fiscal year 2015
ends in October to prevent further LRIP de-
lays. By the end of fiscal year 2015, the navy
should “demonstrate tactics and procedures
that will enable Triton to descend and operate
in medium- and low-altitude environments,”
the report says.
To accomplish those goals, all three
MQ-4Cs have now been outfitted with IFC
2.2, which allows sensor functionality on the
aircraft and transmission of operational
sensor data to the ground control station,
Burke says.
Ground testing began in the week of 26
January and will run for about six weeks,
during which time engineers will check the
sensors and software and recheck the systems
that have already been validated prior to the
ferry flights.SENSORS
The navy was aiming to conduct the first
mission with operational sensors under IFC
2.2 configuration by 1 February, but the target
date has been pushed back to late February or
early March. That flight will allow a function-
al test of all the aircraft’s systems and sensors,
Burke says.
There should be few surprises, as the navy
has two years of flight test of the multifunc-
tion active sensor (MFAS) aboard a Northrop
Grumman-owned Gulfstream GII surrogate
aircraft. The first several flights of the MQ-4C
with operational MFAS will mirror the enve-
lope and mission profiles of sorties already
completed aboard the GII.
Triton carries an AN/ZPY-3 MFAS that
includes an active electronically scanned
array mounted on a mechanically rotated
360 ̊ pedestal.tralian ministry of defence white paper sched-
uled for release within months. Australia is
likely to need between six and eight Tritons to
be bought through the foreign military sales
process.
SYSTEMS
Mackey also mentions the UK and Norway as
watching the Triton programme as it moves
from testing to operational assessment. That
process began in January with a software up-
grade to all three systems. Additions of de-ic-
ing mechanisms and eventually an aerial
sense-and-avoid radar might allow Germany
to resurrect the defunct Euro Hawk pro-
gramme using Triton. Global Hawk was
dropped as a possibility because it lacked
those systems, which are required to fly in
European commercial airspace.
Australia and other potential international