Navy says may trim Northrop drone order due to better reliability

I mproved reliability of Northrop Grumman Corp's unmanned MQ-4C Triton spy plane means the U.S. Navy may buy fewer of the drones than the 68 it now has on order, a senior navy official said on Tuesday, a move which may result in lower revenues for the planemaker.

The Navy's goal is to have 20 of the huge drones available at any given time to use for five continuous "orbits" of maritime surveillance. It takes four planes to make up one orbit.

Rising reliability rates mean the Navy may not need as many of the high-altitude aircraft as first thought, said Captain Jim Hoke, who runs the Triton program for the Navy.

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