DARPA-Navy Agreement to Develop Tern Concept

DARPA-Navy Agreement to Develop Tern Concept
DARPA Awards Five Contracts for the Evaluation of TERN Naval UAS | Defense Update:
2014/06/11 DARPA-Navy Agreement to Develop Tern Concept

DARPA and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on a joint DARPA/Navy research and development program called "Tern." This joint effort builds upon the existing work of DARPA's Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node program, or "TERN," which has been exploring concepts for a long-endurance and long-range aircraft that would operate from a variety of Navy ships.

Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN)
In March 2013, DARPA announced the Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN), a program designed to deploy a fixed-wing, medium-altitude, long- endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial system at sea from small U.S. Navy combatants. Technical objectives of the program include:

• Developing a launch and recovery technique to enable large aircraft operations from smaller ships, even in rough seas.
• Designing an aircraft compatible with the maritime environment with range and payload performance comparable to emerging land-based UAS.
• Ensuring the system can operate with minimal manning and shipboard modifications
• Packaging the system to fit into the limited space aboard ships such as the LCS-2 Independence Class.

DARPA intends to develop TERN over a forty month period, with three phases: I) Conceptual System Definition; II) Technical Maturation Phase; and III) Demonstration Phase, to include a full-scale launch and recovery demonstration.