The US Navy for the first time deployed its Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton Broad Area Maritime System (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
According to US Navy announcement made on 26 January, the Hawk high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAVs first landed at Andersen Air Force Base (AFB) on the island of Guam. The announcement further noted that this maiden deployment marked introduction to the US Navy’s 7th Fleet in the Pacific theatre.
Also, he Commander, Task Force (CTF) 72, lead for patrol, surveillance and reconnaissance forces in the 7th Fleet, will be the one in charge of the two aircraft deployed to Andersen Air Force Base.
According to Captain Matt Rutherford, the commander of CTF 72, the aircraft comes with various capabilities. The UAVs are couple with capabilities of the MQ-4C with the proven performance of the Boeing, P-8 Poseidon maritime multi-mission aircraft (MMA) of the Lockheed, P-3 Orion MMA and the LockheedEP-3 special mission aircraft that will significantly enable improved maritime territory awareness in support of regional and national security goals.
The news of the first (maiden) deployment comes 18 months after the US Navy inducted the Triton into service in June 2018.
The MQ-4C Triton AUV has been developed from the Block 30 RQ-4N naval variant of the RQ-4 Global Hawk HALE UAV and will be very effective in providing the US Navy with insistent maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability much need to support a wide range of military operations.
