Northrop Grumman’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System has completed a critical design review with the U.S. Navy.
“It is gratifying to see the design mature from the Preliminary Design Review to the Critical Design Review over the past 12 months,” said Steve Enewold, Northrop Grumman vice president and program manager for BAMS. “The System Development and Demonstration program’s first two fuselages are under construction at our Moss Point, Miss., facility and the first will ship next month to our Palmdale Manufacturing Center in California for final assembly and first flight next year.”
The MQ-4C system CDR, which was preceded by 10 subsystem and segment CDRs, sets the initial product baseline for the MQ-4C system. The government and Northrop Grumman teams will be working to close out action items generated at the review to officially close CDR.
The MQ-4C BAMS UAS air vehicle — for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions — is a modified version of the U.S. Air Force RQ-4B Global Hawk. Changes to the RQ-4B include a stronger wing, an ice protection system and a sensor suite based upon components of — or entire systems — already fielded in the U.S. Department of Defense inventory.