The first Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton high-altitude long-endurance UAV destined for Australia was unveiled at the OEM’s production facilities in Palmdale, California on 14 September last year, while a mock-up is present at Avalon Airshow 2023.
Jane Bishop, Vice President of Northrop Grumman’s Global Surveillance business, said the aircraft will perform its maiden flight later this year, before it is due in Australia in mid-2024. Its construction had commenced at Moss Point, Mississippi in October 2020, before its fuselage and one-piece wing were then mated at Palmdale in December 2021.
Air Marshal Robert Chipman, Chief of the RAAF, said at last year’s unveiling: ‘Triton will provide the Royal Australian Air Force with an unprecedented capability to monitor and protect our maritime approaches. Triton will work alongside the P-8A Poseidon, and this unmanned aircraft system will allow us to cover significant areas, at longer ranges, and has the ability to stay airborne longer than a traditional aircraft.’
Australia has three Tritons on contract, though the ADF has previously said that Project Air 7000 Phase 1B requires six Tritons and it does have an option on a seventh. In any case, the eventual number of aircraft will presumably be determined by the Defence Strategic Review.
Bishop said the fuselage and wing of the RAAF’s second aircraft occurred in January, while the third will undergo this milestone in April. Australian operators are already embedded with the US Navy, so training is in process.
The RAAF is busy preparing infrastructure such as accommodation, operating facilities and supporting engineering services at RAAF Base Edinburgh near Adelaide, which will be the main base for these large, ungainly aircraft that have the wingspan of a Boeing 737 jet. Indeed, the reason for the delay of the first Triton to Australia is because the requisite infrastructure is behind schedule, which Defence attributes to a pause in Triton production in early 2020.
The USA had halted funding for the Triton in FY2021, and there were fears that the USN might even cancel the programme. However, the USN allocated USD587.8 million for three aircraft in its FY2023 budget.
They will also operate from the forward operational location of RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory; the latter will receive new hangars, maintenance facilities, accommodation, aircraft pavements and supporting engineering services.
It was announced in September 2021 that Northrop Grumman has delivered the Triton Network Integration Test Environment (NITE) to the ADF at Edinburgh. The NITE is used to configure and test Triton network interfaces and systems ahead of delivery.
Australian and US Navy Tritons will be able to share data between their respective militaries. The USN had a pair of MQ-4Cs stationed at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam for two years until mid-2022, and they performed 5,000 flight hours as part of an operational deployment.
Australian Tritons will be flown by No. 92 Wing of the RAAF. Final operational capability is still scheduled for 2025-26. Australia will use a configuration containing the IFC-4 Multi-Intelligence capability, the same as what the US Navy. An initial operational capability for IFC-4 is due this year.
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