PATUXENT RIVER, Md. –
The Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator (BAMS-D) returned June 17 from Fifth Fleet to its home base at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, marking the end of a 13-year deployment that was originally intended to be just six months.
The unmanned aircraft landed at Pax River shortly after 2 p.m. where the dedicated BAMS-D team of military, civilian and contractor personnel welcomed its arrival.
In 2009, the Navy deployed BAMS-D—a maritime variant of the Air Force Global Hawk—for a six-month concept demonstration in Fifth Fleet, but as demand overseas increased its mission was extended year after year. BAMS-D provided more than 50 percent of maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) in theater, accruing over 42,500 flight hours in 2,069 overseas missions.
“BAMS-D has been a singular force multiplier for Fifth Fleet and U.S. Central Command and has provided invaluable insights into the use of unmanned air systems as part of an overall concept of operations for naval ISR,” said Dave Seagle, BAMS-D deputy program manager.
Seagle, who has led the program since its inception, and his team at Pax River supported fleet operational requirements in theater while concurrently providing training and testing capabilities at Pax River.
By 2013, BAMS-D had ramped up its capabilities to 15, 24-hour missions every month, supplementing its first deployed aircraft with a second aircraft. Through the next nine years, BAMS-D provided uninterrupted operations and collected almost 1.4 million ISR scenes, highlighted over 11,500 targets of interest and provided the fleet with over 15,000 tactical reports, becoming an indispensable asset for the warfighter. One of many notable achievements occurred as recently as August 2021 when BAMS-D provided ISR coverage to non-combatant evacuation operations during the U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan, Seagle said.
“Despite the aging of the system and limited spares available, BAMS-D’s incredible operations and maintenance team achieved an overall mission availability rate of 96 percent, with more than 94 percent of scheduled missions completed,” said Seagle.
MQ-4C Triton is the Navy’s newest UAS platform that provides the fleet with a high-altitude, long-endurance system in the maritime domain. It is currently being upgraded with a multi-intelligence capability that is expected to be fielded next year.
From the Persistent Maritime Unmanned Aircraft Systems program office public affairs. 