DARPA, Navy want long-range ISR drones for smaller ships

Long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions are important to military operations, but they require either an aircraft carrier or a ground base from which to launch aircraft. Pentagon and Navy researchers want to change that, by developing unmanned aircraft that can launch from smaller ships without having to modify their decks.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement on a joint program called Tern, which seeks to build a prototype medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial system that can launch from a deck the size of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, DARPA said in a release.

If successful, Tern would allow long-range ISR and other capabilities from a variety of forward-deployed ships.

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