Service officials overseeing the development of the Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aircraft are continuing talks with foreign militaries on potential international sales of the new intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance platform, according to the Navy officer in charge of the program.

Just last week, representatives from the Navy, BAMS prime contractor Northrop Grumman [NOC] and representatives from the Japanese military discussed the country’s possible acquisition of the aircraft, BAMS program manager Capt. Bob Dishman said in an April 13 interview with Defense Daily.

Program officials have also been keeping tabs on potential BAMS sales to the Royal Australian Navy, Dishman said.

There has been, and as recently as last week…talks [with] the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force about the BAMS capability,” Dishman said. “There is interest that has been shown by Japan, in both the Global Hawk and the BAMS.” The RQ-4 Global Hawk, also built by Northrop Grumman, is the Air Force version of the Navy UAS.

Noting that the miles and miles of costal waters that the Japanese maritime forces are responsible for, “we think that a BAMS capability would be very attractive to them,” Dishman said. Currently, the Air Force has already deployed one RQ-4 to the Pacific, with plans to fly two more over to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam this year.

Aside from expressing interest in the Navy’s UAS, Japan is also weighing a decision on the potential purchase of four Global Hawks for its missile defense operations. (Defense Daily, Sept. 30, 2010)

If both governments agree to terms on a foreign military sale for either the BAMS or Global Hawk aircraft, Dishman said the versions that would be delivered to the Japanese or Australians could be the exact ones operated by American airmen and sailors.

“It would depend on what the international customer wanted. In discussions with Australia, it would be the [U.S.] BAMS configuration…it would be identical, in the discussions we have had with them,” Dishman said.

While negotiations with Tokyo have not gone into “that much detail” regarding possible variants or versions of the aircraft, Dishman noted that the likely proposal offered to the Japanese would be for a Navy-configured BAMS aircraft.