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Now that the EP-3 is gone...

L

Llarry

Well-Known Member
...and replaced by the MQ-4C, I note in looking at the FY2025 Navy Air procurement budget (FY25 APN for budget geeks) that the MQ-4C, once touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread for world-wide maritime domain awareness and destined to be produced until the Navy had 68 airframes, has now been truncated at 22 airframes. Clearly the VUP business is not a growth industry! What happened?


MQ-4C Triton.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 2015 MQ-4C brief.pdf
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Waveoff

Waveoff

Per Diem Mafia
None
The EP-3 has no direct replacement and the mission of SIGINT is not a 1/1 swap with triton. VQ personnel have not been assessed directly into VUP despite some people choosing to take their talents there.
 
Brett327

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Other than capacity, any reason why Rivet Joint can't do the job in the interim? RJ is more or less functionally equivalent. TBH, so much of this stuff is being done by NTM these days, we may not need as much capacity as we did 20 years ago.
 
Waveoff

Waveoff

Per Diem Mafia
None
Word is CENTCOM no longer having human beings to talk to onsta is stressing them out. When you induce a signal detect, to transmit, to reception at ground station, analysis, re-transmit, to then hopefully received by the comm suite of a fighter… seems like we are assuming a lot of pathways are working fine and dandy.

If only there was another recent platform transition in the realm of MPRA to a trusted and reliable airframe in recent history they could pull from…
 
Dontcallmegump

Dontcallmegump

Well-Known Member
pilot
Waveoff said:
Word is CENTCOM no longer having human beings to talk to onsta is stressing them out. When you induce a signal detect, to transmit, to reception at ground station, analysis, re-transmit, to then hopefully received by the comm suite of a fighter… seems like we are assuming a lot of pathways are working fine and dandy.

If only there was another recent platform transition in the realm of MPRA to a trusted and reliable airframe in recent history they could pull from…
Click to expand...
If that glorious day comes to pass, the heros you need will be waiting...

1000013463.jpg
 
MIDNJAC

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
Brett327 said:
Other than capacity, any reason why Rivet Joint can't do the job in the interim? RJ is more or less functionally equivalent. TBH, so much of this stuff is being done by NTM these days, we may not need as much capacity as we did 20 years ago.
Click to expand...

Flew an airline trip with a reservist RJ IP (in his other life) a few weeks ago. Was interesting to compare our vastly different strategies of airline vs reserves work/life balancing. Anyway, he showed me some cool pics on his iPhone that were of Flankers near Kaliningrad belly up to him. I could ID all the missiles, though I couldn't decide on the long burn Alamo variant being carried, other than by assumption. Fun fact, he was in AFROTC at OSU when I was there in NROTC. Think he was maybe a year ahead of me or something. Small world. Then we had a TCAS TA on short final into seatac on the last leg of the trip, that neither us nor tower could locate. Different scenario, but nearly exactly same parameters as the DCA crash. Spent the drive home trying to decide via text if it was a mandatory report event :)
 
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