DARPA Selects Northrop Grumman, AeroVironment for TERN Ship-board UAV Program Phase 2

DARPA has awarded prime contracts for Phase 2 of Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR). The goal of Tern is to give forward-deployed small ships the ability to serve as mobile launch and recovery sites for medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial systems (UAS). These systems could provide long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other capabilities over greater distances and time periods than is possible with current assets, including manned and unmanned helicopters. Further, a capacity to launch and retrieve aircraft on small ships would reduce the need for ground-based airstrips, which require significant dedicated infrastructure and resources. The two prime contractors selected by DARPA are AeroVironment, Inc., and Northrop Grumman Corp.

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My hope would be the TERN would be doing what is being touted for the UCLASS as an ISR platform.  A handful of TERNs could be based on the CVN and more scattered in the rest of the battlegroup.  The UCLASS would be then be the attack bird it ought to be.