DoD’s Tern program will revolutionize small ships with persistent ISR and strike capabilities anywhere in the world.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has moved to a third and final stage of an effort to launch medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from US Navy’s relatively small surface ships like destroyers, frigates, and even freighters and expects an initial flight test in 2018.

The ultimate goal for a TERN UAV and launch system to enable persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike capabilities with payloads as large as 600 pounds while operating at ranges as long as 900 nautical miles from a host vessel. The TERN program envisions a capability “like having a falcon return to the arm of any person equipped to receive it, instead of to the same static perch every time,” says Daniel Patt, the DARPA TERN program manager. “About 98 percent of the world’s land area lies within 900 nautical miles of ocean coastlines,” Patt explains. “Enabling small ships to launch and retrieve long-endurance UAVs on demand would greatly expand our situational awareness and our ability to quickly and flexibly engage in hot spots over land or water.

“Effective 21st-century warfare requires the ability to conduct airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike mobile targets anywhere, around the clock. Current technologies, however, have their limitations. Helicopters are relatively limited in their distance and flight time. Fixed-wing manned and unmanned aircraft can fly farther and longer but require either aircraft carriers or large, fixed land bases with runways often longer than a mile. Moreover, establishing these bases or deploying carriers requires substantial financial, diplomatic and security commitments that are incompatible with rapid response, “says DARPA.