• Credit: ADM Katherine Ziesing
    Credit: ADM Katherine Ziesing
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With the Triton due to hit an important milestone at the end of the year, it was heartening to see the platform in the flesh at Pax River working steadily towards that goal.

Katherine Ziesing | Patuxent River, US

The program of record is due to hit Milestone C at the end of the calendar year, which will trigger further funding and production alerts in the US government system. It also means that Australia will consider the next phase of its purchase of the platform as well, forming the case for second pass in December 2017.

Both Northrop Grumman and the US Navy are confident that the target will be met. The USN’s program manager Commander Jason Rider has three Tritons (one owned by Northrop Grumman and two by the USN) in a purpose built hangar at Pax River where 80 per cent of the testing envelope is currently being worked on.

When questioned on the use of Australian ranges as part of the testing program, CMDR Rider said that it was definitely an area that could be looked at, much the same way as the P-8 came out to Australia as part of their OT&E program.

The program is on target to meet the 2017 IOC and 2015 FOC points, CMDR Rider told Australian media on a recent visit to Pax River. IOC is loosely defined as having four aircraft able to deploy operationally to support the first orbit stand up while FOC is defined as having 20 aircraft deployed to cover the full five orbits that cover the globe as defined by the USN.

The program office expects a Milestone C decision from the Navy approving low-rate initial production (LRIP) of the Triton by the end of this year. The first two LRIP aircraft and two initial operational test and evaluation aircraft will constitute a first operational orbit. A full-rate production decision review is expected in 2018, which would phase in the multi-int capability upgrade. IOC for the multi-int configuration would follow in 2020.

“We’ve loaded our first sensor software packages into all three Tritons and that’s what we’re flying now,” CMDR Rider explained. “Now in testing we have the radar, the EO/IR turret and ESM plus Automatic Identification System (AIS, for the identification of ships at sea) payload all loaded up.

"The battle right now is completing all the integration of the various systems into a coherent whole. So the test program is about 20 per cent complete at this moment. The test program won’t be complete until we get the third software build in place and that will be delivered next US summer.”

CMDR Rider estimates that the test program will have a year of testing with the third and final software patch for Early Operational Test and Evaluation (EOT&E) leading into IOC.

Since Australia has opted to become a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer rather than a developmental partner, the ADF will be aiming for the multi-intelligence version of the Triton in 2020. This variant will see an additional sensor payload and processing power. While the multi-int variant will see no obvious changes to the platform to the naked eye, CMDR Rider outlined what the evolution means.

“The ESM will be enhanced, it will have a true electronic intelligence box and we’re adding what we call a low band capability for communications intelligence,” he explained.

Disclaimer: Katherine Ziesing travelled to the US as a guest of Northrop Grumman.

 

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