(Washington, D.C.) Just when concerned observers, weapons developers, lawmakers and other critics began to lament the “lower-than-expected” numbers emerging from the administration’s budget proposal, and advocates for medium-to-large drones began to fear that upgraded platforms such as the Triton maritime surveillance drone might be reduced or even eliminated, there is reason to rethink those worries.
While there is what the Navy calls a “procurement pause” regarding Navy plans to acquire some new platforms such as MQ-4C Tritons, service leaders appear quite committed to the longevity of the drone, in part through a series of massive upgrades in the areas of Multi-Intelligence gathering capability and targeting technology.
While the Navy is both clear and specific to say the Triton is not an armed platform, the drone is now being configured with advanced new “targeting, command and control” technologies, a development which naturally at very least raises the question as to whether it might one-day fire Hellfire missiles, Maverick Rockets, Hydra 70s or even drop glide bombs.
The Triton already does targeting missions, yet the Navy is now deeply immersed in a series of new, high-tech enhancements which seem to indicate the service is transitioning the drone into a major maritime warfare platform.
“Investment in MQ-4C’s Multi-Intelligence configuration is critical to the execution of the Navy’s Maritime Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance and Targeting Transition Plan that will enable the sundown of the legacy EP-3E,” Navy spokeswoman Courtney Callaghan told The National Interest.
The Triton drone, a Navy specific Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance asset now operating in the Pacific theater, has been specifically engineered to operate in a maritime environment, meaning it can change altitude as needed, track moving targets on the ocean, sense through weather obscurants and function with “de-icing” technologies for extreme environmental conditions. It uses “Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar,” an imaging technology which develops rendering or two-dimensional images of high-value targets by tracking “movement” at sea.
Despite this tactical advantage, there are only a few Triton’s operating in the Pacific, leading some to believe more might be needed to address the threats and vast geographical expanse of the region.
