DARPA's Vertical Take Off And Landing Combat Drone Could Revolutionize Naval Combat

Northrop Grumman scored another win this last year after its Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) concept was tapped for full-scale demonstration. The DARPA and Office of Naval Research-led program seeks to give Navy surface combatants, like destroyers and Littoral Combat Ships, fixed-wing aircraft carrier-like capabilities, albeit on a smaller scale. It’s a move that could change naval warfare, and warfare in general, as we know it.

The idea of adding a fixed wing unmanned aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically to bolster the sensor range and combat capability of destroyers, cruisers, littoral combat ships and other surface combatants is nothing new. I predicted it would be a future must-have. Now this concept is set to mature into the demonstration phase, similar to that of another Northrop Grumman product, the hugely successful, stealthy carrier-borne X-47B drone.

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