Is the MQ-4C Triton considered a black project or not?

[hsinchong]

I wonder if the development of the MQ-4C Triton had links to black projects at Groom Lake or not.

 

[Mike OTDP]

No. It's based on the RQ-4 family.

 

[Scott Kenny]

I wonder if the development of the MQ-4C Triton had links to black projects at Groom Lake or not.

Not exactly, it's evolved out of the old "Tiered" UAV classes.

• Tier 1 was a Low Altitude Long Endurance (LALE), specs of the CIA Gnat 750/LOFTY VIEW. The Gnat was developed into the Predator, which flies a lot higher.
• Tier 2 was Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE), ended up as the Predator drone.
• Tier 3 was High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) and stealthy, and was just flat too complex to make at the time (If you can find the QUARTZ/AARS requirements, that was what Tier 3 was supposed to be). So the program was split into Tier 2+ and Tier 3-.
  • Tier 2+ was HALE without stealth, and that competition delivered the RQ4/MQ4 planes.
  • Tier 3- was stealth first, altitude and endurance second, and became the Lockheed-Boeing RQ3 Dark Star, which then got cancelled.