On June 17, the last RQ-4A Global Hawk drone specially configured for the U.S. Navy as part of the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator program, or BAMS-D, landed in Patuxent River, Maryland to be greeted by the program’s personnel responsible for its conception. Returning from a whopping 13-year-long deployment that was initially supposed to be a six-month concept demonstration, the remaining BAMS-D aircraft are on their way to tying off a storied career.
The BAMS-D program began in 2003 after the Navy awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to develop concepts of operation for a high-altitude, long-endurance maritime-focused unmanned system, which ended up laying the groundwork for the MQ-4C Triton. Originally called the Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration program, the Navy and Northrop Grumman then began working together to modify the U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk’s integrated sensor suite to include overwater radar and electronic support measures to better fit a maritime environment. Four of the early Block 10 RQ-4As were eventually modified for the program, which became known as BAMS-D.
The overall BAMS-D system is comprised of two Block 10 RQ-4A unmanned air vehicles, one Mission Control Element, two Launch and Recovery Elements, and one Tactical Auxiliary Ground Station as described by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). The aircraft is propelled by one Rolls-Royce AE3007H turbofan engine and clocks in at about 44 feet in length with a wingspan of 116 feet. They’re also around 15 feet tall with a max design gross take-off weight of 26,750 pounds, which allows them to reach their flight ceiling of about 60,000 feet. The system’s ground station is made up of a four-member crew, two of which remotely pilot the aircraft while the other two operate the sensors. The Global Hawk, and its BAMS-D offshoot, use a semi-autonomous control concept in which no actual pilot flies the aircraft. Instead, it and its systems are directed via a desktop ‘point and click’ type interface.
According to NAVAIR, BAMS-D completed its first split-site deployment — where it operates overseas but is controlled during its mission in a different locale like the U.S. — in 2008 in support of the Trident Warrior and Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises held that year. Also during its early days in the field, the system became a significant enabler for humanitarian efforts by providing reconnaissance of wildfires in mountainous regions of California as well as assessing the damage left by Hurricane Ike.
“Northrop Grumman and the Navy deployed the system from Naval Air Station Patuxent River to Naval Air Station Point Mugu to participate in RIMPAC and Trident Warrior in the summer of 2008 where we flew 15 successful flights,” said Avis Anderson, sustainment director for Triton programs at Northrop Grumman when asked if we had any fond memories of BAMS-D. “A short period afterward, we received the order to deploy to Central Command in early 2009. The capability spoke for itself.”
In 2009, the Navy deployed the BAMS-D system to Al Dhafra Air Force Base in the United Arab Emirates where it was sent off to fly its supposedly brief demonstration for the Fifth Fleet, which is responsible for naval forces in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and parts of the Indian Ocean and is headquartered in Bahrain. However, as foreign tensions continued to rise in the Middle East, BAMS-D had its mission extended with each passing year. According to NAVAIR, BAMS-D went on to provide more than 50 percent of maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) for its operational area and racked up over 42,500 flight hours in 2,069 overseas missions.
“By 2013, BAMS-D had ramped up its capabilities to fifteen 24-hour missions every…
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