Defense Technology International - January/February 2008 - (Page 39) PATROL MARITIME SURVEILLANCE OPTIONS Navy has multiple choices in meeting BAMS requirement NORTHROP GRUMMAN CONCEPT BILL SWEETMAN•MINNEAPOLIS S ome big defense competitions end up giving the customer a choice of similar solutions, with the result determined by price. The U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program is not one of them. BAMS is the first time that a U.S. service has held a competition for a large unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk came out of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) competition; the MQ-9A Reaper was a solesource procurement. The Navy has been able to resist attempts by the Defense Dept. to marry BAMS to USAF’s long-endurance UAV program. The BAMS concept of operations differs from USAF’s. The Air Force plans to keep its Global Hawk force centrally controlled, at Beale AFB, Calif., with expeditionary operations and forward basing as required. The primary missions are intelligence and reconnaissance. BAMS is being developed with the Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) and will operate alongside it, from five permanent bases around the world. It is intended as an adjunct to the P-8A, allowing the Navy to cover more ocean area with a higher revisit rate. Unlike the P-8A, it does not have an anti-submarine role, nor will it carry armament. The basic requirements define the mission. The Navy wants to station no more than three vehicles at each base. The threshold requirement is to keep an aircraft on station 24/7, 2,000 naut. mi. from base, 80% of the time. The objective mission is 95% “e ective time on station” and a 3,000-naut.-mi. radius. At any time, one of the vehicles will be on station; another may be in transit between the station and the base; and the third is available for maintenance and as a backup. Implicit RQ-4N Global Hawk has a ventral radome for a new AESA radar, and a Flir turret. is the ability of the aircraft to operate freely in international airspace. BAMS is intended to carry a sensor with inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) that classifies a ship at stando range. The UAV will then descend and identify the ship, which means being able to read its name. The Navy wants operators on board its ships to be able to control the BAMS sensor. BAMS is due to be operational by 2014, which along with the Na39 www.aviationweek.com/dti JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL http://www.aviationweek.com/dti
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