Northrop Wins $15M to Modify MQ-4C Triton for Australia

The U.S. Department of Defense today awarded Northrop Grumman $15 million to modify the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for Australia.

This modification provides additional labor and material to incorporate production engineering change proposals that modify MQ-4C Triton UAS production assets to an Integrated Functional Capability (IFC) 4.0 multiple intelligence configuration for the Navy and the government of Australia, an official DoD release said.

The Triton IFC 4.0 project seeks to upgrade the Triton UAV with multi-intelligence capabilities that include Signals intelligence (SIGINT). The Triton program is installing a SIGINT sensor payload with components from Boeing Argon ST in Fairfax, Va., and Sierra Nevada Corp. in Sparks, Nev.

This upgrade could replace the U.S. Navy's fleet of EP-3 aircraft, which is based on the Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion four-engine turboprop airframe.