By Carlo Munoz
Members of the Navy’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance division are working details for an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) for a new mid-range unmanned aircraft, with plans to wrap up that rview by the end of this year, according to the service’s ISR chief.
Navy officials have already completed the initial capabilities document for the new UAS and are now drafting the study guides that will inform the upcoming AoA, said Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in the Navy’s information dominance shop (N2/N6).
“We feel comfortable that that program now is not just a slideshow,” he said during a March 4 interview with Defense Daily. As envisioned, the Navy’s Mid-Range Unmanned Aerial System (MR-UAS) will fill the operational gap between the low-altitude MQ-8 FireScout UAS and the high-altitude Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) aircraft, a marinized version of the Air Force’s RQ-4 Global Hawk.
Northrop Grumman [NOC] is the prime contractor on the MQ-8, Global Hawk and the BAMS systems.
“We need a system that gave us greater range, and I am not talking 100 miles, I am talking well beyond 100 miles,” Klunder said. “I am also not talking about four or five hours [on station]. I am talking about something like eight to 10 hours. I am also not talking something that has a few hundred pounds of payload, I am talking something that is up closer to 1,000 pounds of payload.”
That pending AoA is expected to wrap up by the end of this year, according to Klunder. “When [20]12 rolls around, we think we are closer to setting up for a [request for proposals] development…So that is moving, it is not something that is a pipe dream.”
Over the long term, after the Navy selects a winner, service officials anticipate limited deployments of the MR-UAS system to begin my FY ’16. Full-rate production variants of the system are set to hit the skies by FY’ 19, he said. “But [20]16 is when you will actually see that thing doing some limited operations,” Klunder added.
Until then, officials within the ISR directorate are working on a slate of upgrades for the current MQ-8 fleet. The Fire Scout “is here now and will keep us moving in the right direction” by continuing to support maritime ISR operations at the combatanant commands and within the special forces community, Klunder said. “We are always looking…to upgrade where we can and be cost efficient,” he said.
While the one-star admiral did not go into specifics on what modifications are planned for the FireScout, he did note such near-term work would focus on meeting requirements for SOF operations.