03 February 2022

First-production Triton at IFC-4 standard delivered to USN

by Richard Scott

The first IFC-4 standard Triton for the US Navy. (Northrop Grumman)

The US Navy (USN) has taken delivery of the first Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS) configured to Integrated Functional Capability 4 (IFC-4) standard.

Aircraft B8 was delivered to Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Maryland, on 1 February. IFC-4 supports a so-called Multi-Intelligence (Multi-INT) configuration that endows the MQ-4C with a signals intelligence (SIGINT) capability.

An integral element of the USN's plan to recapitalise its maritime patrol and reconnaissance force, the MQ-4C Triton high-altitude, long-endurance UAS has been designed to provide a persistent maritime and littoral intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data collection and dissemination capability to the fleet, and to shorten the sensor-to-shooter kill-chain. The MQ-4C is characterised as a maritime ISR ‘system of systems' comprising the air vehicle itself (a marinised adaptation of the high-altitude, long-endurance RQ-4B Global Hawk), a multisensor mission payload (maritime radar, electro-optical/infrared, electronic support measures, Automatic Identification System (AIS), and basic communications relay), and supporting ground control stations.

The Multi-INT kit embodied in IFC-4 includes sensor, electronics, and communication subsystems changes to permit processing of Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information. Argon ST, a Boeing subsidiary, is the designer, developer, and integrator of the Multi-Intelligence Sensor Development (MISD) Low Band Sensor Suite, while Sierra Nevada Corporation holds an equivalent role for the MISD High Band Sensor Suite.

The US Navy (USN) has taken delivery of the first Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft sy...

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