Northrop Grumman Corporation built unmanned demonstrator aircraft used for maritime surveillance missions by the US Navy surpassed 10,000 combat flying hours supporting intelligence-gathering missions in the Middle East.

The broad area maritime surveillance demonstration (BAMSD) aircraft are currently flying 15 missions a month and allow fleet commanders to identify and track potential targets of interest using a specialised suite of surveillance sensors.

Based on the Global Hawk unmanned air system (UAS) designed for land surveillance, the BAMS-D systems were modified to work in a maritime environment. The aircraft regularly fly missions more than 24 hours long at high altitudes.

The Navy is also using BAMS-D to understand how to best use the new surveillance capabilities for the MQ-4C Triton UAS. Currently under development, Triton uses an entirely new sensor suite optimised for a maritime environment.

The Navy’s programme of record calls for 68 Triton UAS to be built. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the programme and is using two test aircraft to develop Triton’s capabilities through 2016.