[MilCom] Maritime-Patrol UAVs at Jacksonville Fla NAS

[ric5]

Navy to locate mission-control center for fleet of maritime-patrol UAVs at
Jacksonville Fla NAS...


Posted by John Keller

JACKSONVILLE NAS, Fla., 16 Aug. 2013. U.S. Navy officials plan to build a
mission-control complex for unmanned maritime patrol aircraft at
Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Fla. The complex will provide command and
control for the Navy's future fleet of Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton Broad
Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

BAMS unmanned aircraft will work together with the Navy's future fleet of
P-8A Poseidon long-range manned maritime patrol aircraft to provide combat
information to expeditionary forces, carrier strike groups, and other Navy
fighting forces. Specifically, BAMS UAVs will help locate and track
potentially hostile surface ships and submarines.

The MQ-4C BAMS UAV will provide intelligence of broad open-ocean areas, and
post contacts to the Global Information Grid (GIG) in support of a variety
of intelligence activities. The future BAMS mission-control complex at
Jacksonville NAS will help consolidate and disseminate data from BAMS
aircraft, and will help coordinate BAMS operations.

The BAMS mission-control complex at Jacksonville NAS will be the operations
center for all activities of the BAMS UAVs, says U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw,
R-Fla., the congressman who represents Jacksonville, NAS. A portion of the
Navy's future P-8 manned aircraft also will be based at Jacksonville NAS.

Today the base is a major hub for the Navy's Atlantic and Caribbean maritime
patrol and airborne anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations, and is home for
many Navy East Coast-based P-3 Orion maritime patrol squadrons -- the
aircraft the P-8 eventually will replace.

Several of the future MQ-4C BAMS unmanned aircraft also will be based at
Jacksonville NAS when the new UAVs enter service in 2015. Other MQ-4C UAVs
will be based at Point Mugu NAS, Calif.; Kadena Air Base, Japan; Andersen
Air Force Base, Guam; Sigonella NAS, Italy, as well as at installations on
Hawaii and Diego Garcia.
Related stories

-- Northrop Grumman to provide BAMS maritime surveillance UAV with ability
to sense and avoid other aircraft

-- Northrop Grumman introduces the MQ-4C BAMS UAV

-- On finishing first flight, Northrop Grumman eyes software upgrade for
Triton surveillance UAV.

The MQ-4C Triton will be a forward deployed, land-based, autonomously
operated system that provides a persistent maritime persistent intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability using a multi-sensor
mission payload that blends maritime radar, electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR)
sensors, electronic support measures (ESM), automatic identification system
(AIS) and basic communications relay.

The MQ-4C Triton air vehicle is based on the U.S. Air Force RQ-4B Global
Hawk UAV, while the Triton's sensors are based on components and systems
already fielded. The MQ-4C's ability to operate within a range of 2,000
nautical miles on missions lasting as long as 30 hours will enable the P-8A
aircraft to focus on its core missions of ASW, anti-ship warfare, and
multi-intelligence operations.

The MQ-4C UAV is 48 feet long, 131 feet wide, 15 feet high, and can fly as
fast as 310 knots at altitudes to 60,000 feet. The UAV will be able to fly
unrefueled for nearly 10,000 nautical miles. The MQ-4C crew, who will
operate at BAMS mission-control complexes like the one to be built at
Jacksonville NAS, will consist of the aircraft operator, mission and
communications commander, and two sensor operators.

Building the BAMS mission-control complex will be the construction firm of
Whitesell-Green Inc. in Pensacola, Fla., which won a $15.9 million contract
Wednesday to build the complex.

Whitesell-Green will construct a new freestanding two-story building to
house the BAMS mission-control complex, which will have two electromagnetic
interference- (EMI) shielded mission control systems, a tactical operations
center with sensitive compartmented information facility spaces, and several
roof-top mounted antennas.

The construction company also will renovate some existing interior spaces at
Jacksonville NAS, including a reconfigured command suite. Whitesell-Green
also will prepare space at a remote site south of the new BAMS
mission-control complex for the installation's antennas.

The complex should be finished by December 2014. Awarding the building
contract were officials of the The Naval Facilities Engineering Command,
Southeast, in Jacksonville, Fla.

For more information contact Whitesell-Green Inc. online at
www.whitesell-green.com, or the Naval Facilities Engineering Command,
Southeast, at https://portal.navfac.navy.mil.


Rick Kd4jrx FM14ab  SENC