The Northrop Grumman company yesterday presented the first MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle intended for the Australian Air Force. Construction of this machine at the Moss Point, Mississippi facility began in October 2020. Final assembly at the Palmdale facility will be completed next year and Triton will be shipped to Australia in 2024.
Ultimately, the RAAF wants to acquire six or even seven MQ-4Cs. So far, however, only three have been ordered, and the decision on the second party is not to be made until next year. Canberra has the status of a collaborating partner in the Triton program, which gives it the right to influence the requirements that the system must meet. The Australians will receive the MQ-4C in the IFC-4 configuration – the same as the ones currently supplied to the US Navy – with equipment for conducting the so-called signal reconnaissance (SIGINT). The first IFC-4 Triton flight tests took place last July at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River.
Today we unveiled Australia’s first MQ-4C Triton #autonomous aircraft at a ceremony attended by Australian, US Government and defense officials. Learn more about the program’s continued progress for both the Royal Australian Air Force and US Navy. https://t.co/Snbuj8MKnR pic.twitter.com/E1rDXo7BDP
– Northrop Grumman (@NGCNews) September 15, 2022
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Much emphasis in the IFC-4 was also placed on the integration of the Tritons with the P-8A Poseidon naval patrol aircraft. Australia has so far received twelve aircraft of this type from RAAF Base Edinburgh near Adelaide. Two more copies are to be ordered within a few years. The assumption is that the Tritons – which cannot carry weapons – are to provide reconnaissance support to armed Poseidons, and operators on board the P-8A, located closer to the battlefield, are to be able to more effectively control the operation of drones.
The close strategic cooperation between the United States and Australia should not be forgotten either. Both of these countries cooperate in a series of programs aimed at counteracting the aggressive policies of the People’s Republic of China in the Pacific. One of the initiatives with such a goal is the Quad security dialogue (Australia, India, Japan, USA), the second – the Five Eyes intelligence cooperation system (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, USA), and finally the third and the youngest – the AUKUS pact (Australia , UK, USA). It can be safely assumed that the Australian Tritons will directly or indirectly contribute to the intelligence potential of Americans in the Southern Hemisphere.
– Triton will provide the Royal Australian Air Force with unprecedented capabilities to monitor and protect maritime approaches to our country – said General Robert Chipman, the RAAF commander at the roll-out ceremony.
Triton is a development version of the RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance drone, developed under the aegis of the BAMS (Broad Area Maritime Surveillance) program. Despite the external similarity, both types differ in terms of equipment. In the Tritons, first of all, the structural reinforcements of the airframe were introduced and the plating de-icing system was installed. As a result, the Triton can safely fly through the clouds and move relatively low above the sea to get a closer look at suspicious ships and ships.
It is not yet known how many Tritons will be made. The US Navy was interested in as many as seventy copies. In the United States, IFC-4 Tritons are to replace the EP-3E ARIES II (Airborne Reconnaissance Integrated Electronic System) manned electronic reconnaissance aircraft, built on the basis of the airframe of the P-3 Orion patrol aircraft, flown in 1959.
The main advantage of the Triton compared to the ARIES is its long flight duration and practical ceiling – they can spend up to 24 hours in the air and fly at an altitude of more than 16,000 meters, and its range is 15,200 kilometers. On top of that there is, of course, the issue of the lack of people on board. The ARIESs are normally manned by a crew of nineteen to twenty-four airmen, who would hardly be expected to routinely spend the entire day in the air.
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US Air Force / Senior Airman Michael S. Murphy
