DARPA Awards Phase 2 Tern Contracts for Small Ship-based ISR

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Artist's concept image for DARPA's Tern program.

DARPA has awarded phase two contracts for the Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node, or TERN, joint program with the Office of Naval Research to give small ships the ability to launch and recover medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft systems.



The TERN program will improve current intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to cover greater distances over longer periods of time and reduce the dependence on ground-based airstrips, which require dedicated infrastructure, according to a DARPA press release.



The contracts were awarded to AeroVironment Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp.



“To offer the equivalent of land-based UAS capabilities from small-deck ships, our phase two performers are each designing a new unmanned air system intended to enable two previously unavailable capabilities — one, the ability for a UAS to take off and land from very confined spaces in elevated sea states and, two, the ability for such a UAS to transition to efficient long-duration cruise missions,” says DARPA Program Manager Dan Patt. “TERN’s goal is to develop breakthrough technologies that the Navy could realistically integrate into the future fleet and make it much easier, quick and less expensive for the Defense Department to deploy persistent ISR and stick capabilities almost anywhere in the world.”



The first two phases of the program focus on preliminary design and risk reduction. Phase three will see one contractor build a full-scale demonstrator for initial ground-based testing eventually leading to prototype demonstration at-sea on a ship with a similar deck size to a destroyer or other surface combat vessel.

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