The U.S. Navy Wants To Fly Big Drones From Small Ships

[Onkel Neal]

This is the smart alternative to carriers, if you ask me. Imagine fast stealthy ships that can launch and manage dozens of drones. Helluva lot more capable than floating cities. The drones can even be piloted by personnel stateside.

DARPA has chosen Northrop Grumman to build for the Pentagon a long-range drone that can fly from smaller U.S. Navy ships. The drone, known as TERN, resembles experimental tail-sitting aircraft from the 1950s.

TERN stands for Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node program. The name is a lot to unpack, but basically, the TERN program seeks to put medium altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial vehicles on U.S. Navy ships, where sailors can operate them from helicopter flight decks. TERN will give ships as small as the Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship the ability to launch, operate, and recover drones in roughly the same class as the Air Force's MQ-1 Predator.

According to FlightGlobal, Northrop's TERN will have a 40-foot wingspan, no fuselage, and a pair of contra-rotating propellers similar to helicopters produced by Russia's Kamov Design Bureau. Contra-rotating propellers allow you to make compact aircraft—an important design consideration when operating from small ships. TERN will have a range of approximately 900 nautical miles, a cargo capacity of 600 lbs., and will be equipped with hard points for carrying sensors, fuel tanks, and weapons under each wing. For example, TERN could mount Hellfire anti-tank missiles or the rocket-based Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/mili...y-tern-drones/