Mary-Louise Hoffman
Northrop Grumman has unveiled a design of its proposed unmanned aircraft system for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency‘s Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node initiative, Breaking Defense reported Sunday.
Colin Clark writes Northrop’s Tern UAS offering is designed with a flying-wing structure and counter-rotating rotor blades.
The company intends for its platform to takeoff and land on the U.S. Navy‘s DDG 51 and Littoral Combat Ships, the report said.
DARPA’s goal is to build a medium-altitude drone that incorporates mobile launch and recovery capabilities and support long-range ISR missions, according to the agency website.
DARPA awarded contracts to Northrop and AeroVironment in March under phase two of the Tern initiative.
Flightglobal reports AeroVironment has said it was not selected to move forward to Tern’s third phase.
Chris Hernandez, senior vice president of research, technology and advanced design at Northrop, told FlightGlobal that DARPA could issue a Tern prototype development contract by January.
