By Geoff Fein
The Navy yesterday awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] a $1.16 billion contract to develop the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial system (UAS), beating out teams led by Boeing [BA] and Lockheed Martin [LMT].
The contract award, which faced numerous delays, was finally approved to move forward on April 8, after the Defense Acquisition Board gave the Navy the go-ahead to move BAMS into the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase, according to a Pentagon spokesperson. It includes the design, fabrication, and delivery, of two unmanned aircraft with mission payloads and communications suites; one Forward Operating Base Mission Control System; one Systems Integration Laboratory; and one Main Operating Base Mission Control System.
On April 18, John Young, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, signed the Milestone B acquisition decision memorandum for the BAMS unmanned aerial system (UAS) Acquisition Category ID program.
Northrop Grumman will use its Block 20 RQ 4B Global Hawk for BAMS. The company has stated it did not plan to modify its unmanned air vehicle other than putting on a new radome and a few new antennas (Defense Daily, June 7).
The Block 20 RQ 4B has an internal payload of 3,200 pounds, which is an increase over the Block 10 4A, and its external payload is 2,400 pounds.
Block 20 RQ 4B uses a triple fan engine, Rolls-Royce motor to reach an altitude of 60,000-feet, Northrop Grumman has said.
In an interview last year, Northrop Grumman officials said the Block 20 RQ 4B meets all threshold requirements in the BAMS request for proposal (RFP) and over 90 percent of the objective requirements (Defense Daily, June 7).
BAMS will be part of a network of aviation assets that includes the P-8 Poseidon Multi-mission maritime Aircraft and the future EPX–a planned next generation spy plane that will replace the EP-3 Aries (Defense Daily, April 1).
BAMS will help fill an existing gap in persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), the Navy has said.
BAMS is expected to enter into initial operational capability in 2013.
Boeing led an industry team that included Honeywell [HON], Raytheon [RTN] and Rolls-Royce, offering an unmanned version of General Dynamics‘ [GD] Gulfstream G550 aircraft (Defense Daily, June 27).
An intriguing aspect of the BAMS G550 offer was that the aircraft could be optionally manned, which would make it easier to integrate the BAMS fleet into the Navy’s inventory initially, Boeing has said.
Lockheed Martin used a modified General Atomics Predator B, and partnered with EDO [EDO], FLIR [FLIR], Honeywell [HON], LSI [LSI] and Sierra Nevada Corp., to offer its version of a 24/7, 365-day, ISR capability.
Mariner’s wingspan is 88 feet. Lockheed Martin officials said that would help the UAS reach an altitude of 50,000 feet and a range of at least 7,100 nautical miles. The UAS will be able to stay on station for 48 hours (Defense Daily, May 8).
Mariner has a 1,350-pound internal payload with an additional 800 pounds of space for future upgrades and a 4,000-pound external payload.
Australia has been working with the U.S. Navy on BAMS, and Australia in the solicitation has a separately priced option that the bidders were asked to address. The Navy is working with Australian officials to establish a memorandum of understanding to allow Australia to fully participate in a cooperative development program.
Once the U.S. Navy makes a source-selection decision, Australia will decide if it wants to join the SDD effort (Defense Daily, April 1).
Aside from Australia, there also has been interest from Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea.
Whether the countries potentially take part in BAMS as cooperative-development efforts or through Foreign Military Sales arrangements is still to be determined.
BAMS UAS is envisioned to be an integrated system of systems, comprised of long-endurance unmanned aircraft, located at bases around the world, providing persistent ISR with multiple sensors to meet warfighter requirements. Specific components include: land-based unmanned aircraft, mission payloads, communications suite, mission control system and support system, according to the Navy.