No Clear Plan for Triton 'Due Regard' Radar, Navy Says

The U.S. Navy has not determined how to fit a “due regard” radar on its unmanned MQ-4C Triton, which will likely start initial operations in 2017 without the subsystem intended to help protect it from midair collisions.

But the Triton will enter service with more capability than any other unmanned aircraft to “detect and avoid” other aircraft, the Navy’s program manager asserts.

During a panel discussion at the Unmanned Systems 2014 conference on May 14, Capt. James Hoke, the Navy’s Triton program manager, said the Global Hawk “persistent surveillance” maritime derivative will come equipped with a traffic alert and collision avoidance system (Tcas) and automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), both transponder-based “cooperative” systems that require other aircraft to have transponders.

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