Northrop Grumman announced in February the successful testing of an MQ-4C Triton uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV), which will be utilized by the Royal Australian Air Force. During the Sea Air Space expo, Zona Militar spoke with Brad Champion, MQ-4C Triton Enterprise director at Northrop Grumman, about Triton’s users and the present and future of this modern high-capacity UAV.
The United States and Australia are the two users of the Triton: the United States Navy has ordered 27 platforms, while Australia has ordered four. Champion explained that Triton is a cooperative project between the US Navy and Australia: “Australia has been part of the program since Day 1. They were part of the requirements and source selection process.”
Champion confirmed that three US Navy UAVs are already operational. The service declared initial operational capability in 2023. The Tritons operate with the 5th, 6th, and 7th Fleets in the Pacific, Europe, and Middle East Theaters.
Meanwhile, Australia already operates one Triton out of Northern Australia. “Two Tritons will be delivered this year,” the Northrop Grumman executive announced. The February tests carried out in Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale facility in California were of Australia’s third UAV. “We are in the process of building their fourth aircraft,” Champion confirmed.
Northrop Grumman is seeking international customers via Foreign Military Sales. Champion confirmed to Zona Militar, “discussions are underway with Norway and NATO for these systems for Arctic-area operations.” Last September 2024, the company “successfully demonstrated” Triton’s abilities in the Arctic Circle. The test flight began in Deadhorse, Alaska, and flew within 100 miles of the North Pole.”
Since Northrop Grumman is interested in expanding the customer base, ZM asked Champion about Triton’s ability to operate in non-combat missions, like patrolling territorial waters and exclusive economic zones (EEZs) to locate narco-boats, the infamous narco-submarines or vessels engaged in illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing. All problems that affect Latin America and the Caribbean. The company executive said, “any country with a large maritime environment or exclusive economic zone would be someone we would consider and should be looking at Triton.”
He added, “I will not go into the specifics of the size of targets Triton can locate, but Triton is equipped to monitor a large maritime area while finding very specific targets of interest and being able to identify them.” “We like to say, we see all the metal in the water,” the Northrop Grumman executive concluded.
Australia and Norway are interested in Triton for non-combat missions as well, as Oslo wants to control its EEZ, while Australia wants to monitor fisheries, immigration, and shipping lanes of traffic. “There are elements Triton can support beyond combat,” Champion said.
During the conversation with ZM, Champion praised Triton’s capabilities for different maritime missions, including supporting the P8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). “Triton is designed to be interoperable with the P8 MPA,” meaning that Triton is “part of the hybrid concept for the US Navy.”
“In a single mission, a single Triton can survey 4,2 million square nautical miles of maritime space in a single flight,” Champion said to summarize the system’s capabilities. “We are the only platform that can operate at those altitudes & endurance, and that can operate with a multisensor package on every single flight for the duration of the whole mission,” he added.
Triton is a UAV designed for high-altitude maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance maritimes. The platform has a flight endurance of over 24 hours and a range of around 7,400 nautical miles. Moreover, Triton can carry out simultaneous operations thanks to its 360-degree multi-intelligence suite and comes equipped with a radar, electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) system, and the US Navy’s “state of the art SIGINT system.”
Retirement of Triton is not on the horizon. The Northrop Grumman executive confirmed to ZM that there are no plans to replace it; the company is confident that “the US Navy will use Triton through 2048 at least.”
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