Broad Area Maritime Surveillance [BAMS]
On 22 April 2008 the Department of the Navy announced that the Northrop Grumman Corp. has been awarded the system development and Demonstration (SDD) contract for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS). The BAMS UAS contract award is the culmination of a year-long source selection process since the Navy received industry proposals in May 2007. The $1.16 billion cost-plus-award-fee contract is to develop a persistent maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data collection and dissemination capability that fulfills the maritime war fighter’s requirement for continuous battle-space awareness. The BAMS UAS will be developed using Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4N platform.
“This announcement represents the Navy’s largest investment in unmanned aircraft systems to date. The extraordinary efforts leading to this announcement have helped the BAMS UAS program begin to develop a persistent ISR capability never before available to the fleet,” said Capt. Bob Dishman, program manager for the BAMS UAS program. “This is a significant milestone for the BAMS UAS program, concluding a deliberate and meticulous source selection process that adhered to stringent Federal Acquisition Regulation and Naval Air System Command source selection processes and documentation requirements.”
The Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAV was intended to provide persistent, maritime surveillance and reconnaissance capability with worldwide access. The Broad Area Maritime Surveillance UAV would be a multi-mission ISR system to support strike, signals intelligence, and communications relay while operating independently or in direct collaboration with other assets in the maritime environment. BAMS would operate at altitudes over 40,000 feet, above the weather and most air traffic to conduct continuous open-ocean and littoral surveillance of targets as small as exposed submarine periscopes. BAMS would be fully integrated into the joint ISR architecture, providing the information to the joint force in near real time. Long-endurance BAMS UAVs would be able to provide a continuous on-station presence at ranges of 1000-3000 nautical miles from the launch point. BAMS would thus play a key role in providing the commander with a persistent, reliable picture of surface threats while minimizing the need to put manned assets in harms way to execute surveillance and reconnaissance tasks.
BAMS, as planned, would be complemented by the Maritime Multi-Mission Aircraft (MMA) for special purpose, generally lower-altitude missions and by the VTUAV operating from LCS to ID contacts with EO/IR sensors. The Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAV would address a persistent Maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission area of the Naval UAV Strategy.
The program planned to colocate BAMS UAS mission crews with Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance (MPR) Forces to allow operators to closely coordinate missions and utilize common support infrastructure. BAMS UAS would share its persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance role with the MMA. The MMA is planned as a fallback program to the BAMS UAS, and according to the Navy, the overall cost of the MMA program would increase due to a need to procure additional aircraft.
The Navy’s Aerial Common Sensor (ACS), a cooperative Army-led program, in conjunction with MMA and BAMS UAS is intended to constitute the MPR family of systems. Due to a significant increase in the weight of ACS, the Army terminated the development contract. According to BAMS UAS officials, problems with the ACS have not affected the BAMS UAS program and future spirals may include planned ACS capabilities such as signals intelligence.
BAMS would function as an enabling force to the Fleet commander. The draft BAMS UAV Concept of Opertions (CONOPS) suggests that a persistent ISR UAV would enhance battle space awareness through imagery, SAR/ISAR, strip mapping. The BAMS UAV would act as an information hub and operate in direct collaboration with other manned and unmanned airborne and space-based ISR platforms to support the employment of naval forces in both the planning and execution phases of contingency operations. It would be fully interoperable with manned assets, other ISR platforms, and intelligence exploitation systems to achieve the highest predictive battle space awareness.
The program goal was to provide a BAMS UAV to Fleet commanders continuously throughout the world. A 24-hour coverage could potentially be sustained for a Carrier Battle Group or ARG’s entire deployment. Battle Group commanders would utilize the BAMS UAV for sea control missions and strike support missions as appropriate.
The BAMS UAV program was planned to enter System Development and Demonstration (SDD) in FY05. Through low-rate initial production, a Navy spokesman said the service planned to spend about $1.3 billion on the effort. The Navy anticipates IOC in FY09. In support of MS B, the Government intends to release the final RFP early summer 2004.
The BAMS UAV System draft Statement of Objectives (SOO), draft Performance Based Specification (PBS), and draft Operational Requirements Document (ORD), would be provided via the BAMS UAV website as reference material for respondents to utilize during their investigation and planning. These documents were considered "draft" and expected to change. For the purposes of the RFI, the draft ORD was reference material only and paragraphs discussing Signal Intelligence (SIGINT), Level IV Shipboard capability and Communications and Data Relay were considered objectives and not thresholds.
