US Navy nears award for new unmanned patrol plane

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy is nearing an announcement on a new unmanned surveillance plane to replace its aging P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, a deal being contested by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research), defense sources said on Monday.

After several delays, Pentagon acquisition chief John Young and other top defense officials were due this week to review the Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program, which is valued at over $3 billion in the longer term, according to two sources familiar with the program.

Defense officials are expected to approve the start of the development phase of the program that would pave the way for the Navy to announce the contract winner, possibly as early as next week, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Australia has also agreed to work with the U.S. Navy program and will likely follow Washington's lead when it picks its own unmanned patrol plane, sweetening the pot considerably for the winning bidder.

The new Navy planes will have a mission radius of 2,000 nautical miles to collect enemy information, battle damage assessments, port surveillance and other information to support Navy missions at sea.

For its bid, Lockheed teamed with General Atomics, the private California company that builds the remotely piloted unmanned Predator aircraft that is being used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rival Boeing partnered with General Dynamics Corp (GD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to offer the GD Gulfstream G550 executive aircraft for the project.

And Northrop, which recently won a Navy unmanned combat aircraft competition, is offering its Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned surveillance plane, which is being used in Iraq and Afghanistan.