Northrop Grumman has been awarded a contract by the ADF to build an MQ-4C Triton Network Integration Test Environment (NITE) at RAAF Base Edinburgh.

The NITE will be a key element in the development of the RAAF Triton capability (see page 26) prior to the delivery of the first ground control segment in 2022 and the first air vehicle entering service in 2023, and will support an estimated 75 jobs.

“The NITE will enable the RAAF to develop networks for test and engineering, as well as operations, ahead of Australia receiving its first Triton ground control stations and air vehicles,” Northrop Grumman Australia chief executive Chris Deeble said in a statement. “This is a significant milestone as the Australian Triton program continues to mature.”

The installation of the NITE will be conducted in three phases. The Northrop Grumman statement says it “will allow the RAAF to progress from basic continuity testing between distributed environments to advanced integration capability development environment via server farm, network storage and virtualisation.”

The NITE system will succeed the company-funded Australian mission systems trainer (Aus-MST) which has been used at Edinburgh since 2016 to support the development of the RAAF’s maritime ISR requirements and initial Triton concepts of operation.