Navy details huge unmanned aerial vehicle program

The Navy Wednesday gave a large audience of defense contractors details on what might be a multibillion dollar contract for an unmanned air reconnaissance system that would require scores of sophisticated flying drones, an array of high-technology sensors and communications systems and the associated ground control and data-receiving stations.

At a briefing near the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in southern Maryland, senior Navy officers and defense officials described the requirements and schedule for a major program called the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance system to more than 200 aerospace industry representatives.

"BAMS is a huge undertaking" that presents "tremendous growth opportunities" for the aerospace industry, said Vice Adm. Walter Massenburg, commander of the Naval Air Systems Command.

Massenburg emphasized that what they wanted was not just an unmanned vehicle but an unmanned aerial system capable of providing persistent maritime surveillance and data collection.

Dyke Weatherington, director of the Defense Department's UAS Planning Task Force, noted that the Senate Armed Services Committee put language in its fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill urging the Defense secretary to push the development of unmanned systems. "This program has a very high level of congressional interest," he said.

The Navy program requires a large unmanned aircraft capable of flying 2,000 nautical miles each way. It must remain at its destination for at least 24 hours while surveying large areas of open ocean or coastal areas with state-of-the-art sensors that relay intelligence to both land-based command posts half a world away and to Navy task forces operating nearby, Massenburg and the other officials explained. BAMS also might fill in as a communications relay asset, they said.

The Navy aviation officials said final requirements are expected to be approved this summer, with a request for proposal following by January and a contract awarded by September 2007.

The first of the aircraft and sensors are to be ready for testing in 2011. The system should be ready for use in 2013.

Although none of the briefers would estimate the number of aircraft required or the potential cost of the contract, the specifications call for enough systems to cover five major areas of the world on a 24-hour basis.

That clearly would require dozens of aircraft and associated systems that might cost more than $50 million each.

And the officials stressed that the program has attracted interest from at least nine foreign nations, which might increase the size of the contract.