DARPA's Vertical Take Off And Landing Combat Drone Could Revolutionize Naval Combat
Tyler Rogoway
Tuesday 8:19pmFiled to: TERN
DARPA's Vertical Take Off And Landing Combat Drone Could Revolutionize Naval Combat
1234
Northrop Grumman scored another win this last year after its Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) concept was tapped for full-scale demonstration. The DARPA and Office of Naval Research-led program seeks to give Navy surface combatants, like destroyers and Littoral Combat Ships, fixed-wing aircraft carrier-like capabilities, albeit on a smaller scale. It’s a move that could change naval warfare, and warfare in general, as we know it.
The idea of adding a fixed wing unmanned aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically to bolster the sensor range and combat capability of destroyers, cruisers, littoral combat ships and other surface combatants is nothing new. I predicted it would be a future must-have. Now this concept is set to mature into the demonstration phase, similar to that of another Northrop Grumman product, the hugely successful, stealthy carrier-borne X-47B drone.
Bask In The Awesome Of The Bat-Winged X-47B Sipping Gas From A Tanker
TERN has evolved steadily through its first and second phase of development, none of which resulted in a full scale prototype, but that is now about to change as the program enters phase three. DARPA describes the program as such:
“The first two phases of Tern successfully focused on preliminary design and risk reduction. In Phase 3, DARPA plans to build a full-scale demonstrator system of a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS designed to use forward-deployed small ships as mobile launch and recovery sites. Initial ground-based testing, if successful, would lead to an at-sea demonstration of takeoff, transition to and from horizontal flight, and landing—all from a test platform with a deck size similar to that of a destroyer or other small surface-combat vessel.”
In other words, TERN is becoming a real thing, not just an idea. And it primarily aims at giving small-deck surface combatants the ability to deploy a semi-autonomous fixed-wing drone, with long endurance, far from the ship.
Once there, it can work as a networking and sensor node, expanding the “sensor picture” and situational awareness of the ship by providing detailed reconnaissance, and being able to relay information to other players far over the horizon. But that is not all TERN will be capable of. Apparently it will pack some serious teeth as well.
MUCH MORE
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/darpas-vertical-take-off-and-landing-combat-drone-could-1750154250
