Guampdn.com is reporting that the Navy has deployed Triton MQ-4C UAS to Guam.
This is actually good news for the Coast Guard, assuming the Navy will share their information, because it could substantially improve maritime domain awareness over an area of the US EEZ that is thousands of miles from the nearest Coast Guard Air Station.
Hey, Chuck, a bit OT but you might be interested in BIW News this month, Fred Harris’ “From the Helm” page talks bout how important it is for Bath to get their costs down for the OPC competition.
https://www.gdbiw.com/WhoWeAre/Newsletter.html
This quote was kind of interesting too: “While the Coast Guard averages $1.4 billion in annual acquisitions funding, it would need $2.5 billion annually to fund all its desired acquisition programs, including OPC.” Of course for FY2016, our AC&I is even much smaller.
What would be the chance of the CG stationing its own joint CBP/CG predator in the Marianas section?
I would say it is pretty far down the priority list. Would expect to see one in 7th District first, probably Puerto Rico.
I would like to see some more capable units in MarSec, but right now we don’t have ships there to exploit detections by UAS.
Looks like the way has been cleared for at least low rate production of the MQ-4C, on the way to a planned 68 aircraft. http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/fedbiz_daily/2016/02/northrop-grumman-s-naval-reconnaissance-drone.html
More information on the Triton. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-30/northrop-works-to-fix-flawed-wings-on-triton-drone-for-u-s-navy
The Triton has been approved for Low Rate Initial Production. http://www.aerotechnews.com/blog/2016/09/23/navy-approves-triton-uas-for-production/
The first unmanned Unmanned Maritime Patrol Squadron flying MQ-4 Tritons has stood up in Jacksonville, FL, but no airframes yet. https://news.usni.org/2016/10/25/navys-first-operational-mq-4c-triton-squadron-stands-up-this-week
“Triton will fly four aircraft at each of its proposed five surveillance orbits in Guam, Italy, the Persian Gulf and and both US coasts.”
They are adding Electronic Intel sensors to the aircraft. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/pentagon-prioritises-ep-3-role-for-triton-432702/