Nayy Triton Program: Northrop Building Own Unmanned Aircraft

January 10, 2013

Mating Fuslage & Wings: Photo credit Northrop Grumman
Mating Fuslage & Wings: Photo credit Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Corporation is building a company-owned unmanned aircraft as a development & demonstration platform for at-sea surveillance.

The U.S. Navy's MQ-4C Triton program aims to provide a detailed picture of surface vessels to identify threats across vast areas of ocean and littoral areas. With its ability to fly missions up to 24 hours, Triton complements many manned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.

Wing sections were joined to the aircraft's fuselage at the company's production facility in Palmdale, Calif. The aircraft will be outfitted with the same intelligence-gathering sensors and communications suite as the Navy's Triton program.

"The aircraft will initially be used to further testing efforts for the Navy as we prepare Triton to be operational in late 2015," said Steve Enewold, Northrop Grumman's vice president and program manager for Triton. "Eventually, we will use the aircraft as a test bed to improve system performance, incorporate new intelligence-gathering capabilities and conduct demonstrations."

All production efforts related to this system were funded internally by the company. Northrop Grumman has also built other company-owned unmanned systems such as Fire Scout, using them to demonstrate new control software and sensor payloads.

"We've proven that company-owned systems allow us to reduce risk in testing efforts and deliver capabilities faster to our customers," said Enewold.
 

Logistics News

Ship Design, Maritime Accidents and There’s a Master on the Run

Ship Design, Maritime Accidents and There’s a Master on the Run

Maersk: Effective US Tariffs Average Around 21% Currently

Maersk: Effective US Tariffs Average Around 21% Currently

US Grain Shipments Surge 9% in face of Chinese Tariffs

US Grain Shipments Surge 9% in face of Chinese Tariffs

Great Lakes Limestone Trade Up in June

Great Lakes Limestone Trade Up in June

Subscribe for Maritime Logistics Professional E‑News

CANADA-CRUDE-Discount on Western Canada Select unchanged
The discount on Russian Urals oil sent to India has been the lowest since 2022.
INDIA RUPEE: Rupee little changed at the end of week, but looming deadline for tariffs in focus