Page 77 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb-Mar 2023

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
AIRPOWER MQ-4C TRITON 77
furnished by the US Government. According to Northrop Grumman, IFC-4 will allow the RAAF and US Navy to share data and maintain an 'unblinking' autonomous intel- ligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and targeting capability.
With the successful delivery of the first IFC-4 aircraft and the restoration of funding in Washington, the Australian PWC has now approved funding for infrastructure to be completed ahead of the arrival of the first aircraft in 2024.
Speaking at the time of the rollout of A57-001 last Sep- tember, Head Air Force Capability Air Vice-Marshal Robert Denney said the Triton will be a major step forward in re- framing the ADF as a three-ocean force.
“Once in service, the [Triton] remotely piloted High Al- titude Long Endurance aerial system will significantly en- hance our ability to persistently patrol Australia’s north and north-western approaches, in the south-west Pacific and south to Antarctica,” he said.
“Triton will complement the surveillance role of the P-8A Poseidon by providing sustained operations at long ranges, and undertaking a range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks.”
At the end of 2022, A57-001 was undergoing what Northrop Grumman calls Cost Centre 1400 Acceptance Testing at Palmdale, where the aircraft’s subsystems are in- stalled and tested. On completion of that work, the aircraft will progress into the systems testing phase, in which air- craft and ground segments are brought together as a com- bined network.
“Once we get through
that phase, we’ll be work-
ing towards our preliminary “TRITON WILL COMPLEMENT production flight out of our
THE SURVEILLANCE ROLE OF THE Palmdale manufacturing fa-
P-8A BY PROVIDING SUSTAINED cility, which will include an
aircraft check flight and then
OPERATIONS AT LONG RANGES, some preliminary sensor AND UNDERTAKING A RANGE OF check flights,” explained Rho
INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE Cauley Bruner, Northrop
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
AND RECONNAISSANCE TASKS” Grumman’s Triton Enter-
prise Program Director.
“Following which we will
ferry the aircraft to Patuxent River where it will undergo a
flight regime for calibration of the mission system, prior to
the ferry flight to Australia and ultimate delivery.”
Functional Capability 4.0 (IFC-4) multiple intelligence
configuration. According to Northrop Grumman these
As the US Navy is the lead organisation for the Triton
contract modifications kept the MQ-4C Triton on path to
program, ADM understands that A57-001 will undergo its achieving US Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in 2023.
testing, acceptance and ferry flight while under the control
of the Navy’s networks. It will be handed over to the RAAF
In the meantime, the program had achieved a major mile-
in Australia and switched over to the sovereign network at
stone in February 2022 when the first production aircraft
that time.
in IFC-4 (Multi-INT) configuration was delivered to the US
Navy at Patuxent River in Maryland.
IFC-4 is the configuration also selected by the RAAF for
LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE
its Tritons and includes a significant Signals Intelligence
The RAAF plans to operate its Tritons from what it re- (SIGINT) payload. Sensors include a Northrop Grumman
fers to as a Forward Operating Base (FOB) at Tindal, near ZPY-3 Multi-Function Active Sensor (MFAS) X-band elec-
tronically scanned surveillance radar under the fuselage;
a Raytheon DAS-3 electro-optic, infra-red (EO/IR) sensor
ABOVE LEFT: Australia will acquire at least three
MQ-4C Tritons
under the nose; and high and low band SIGINT sensors