Australia: Northrop Grumman Showcases Its Portfolio at Pacific 2013

Northrop Grumman Corporation is participating in the Pacific 2013 International Maritime Exposition in Sydney, where it will highlight its maritime security capabilities, including unmanned aircraft systems for maritime and coastal surveillance, marine navigation, radar and mine detection systems, and maritime domain awareness.

 “Northrop Grumman is committed to supporting the Australian Defence Force and to providing affordable capabilities in C4ISR, unmanned systems, cyber and logistics,” said Ian Irving, chief executive Australia, Northrop Grumman Corporation. “We continue to strengthen our presence in Australia and to build partnerships with industry to help us grow a strong defence and security enterprise. This is reflected in the acquisition of M5 Network Securities, the close strategic partnership with CEA Radar Technologies and the recently announced agreement to acquire Qantas Defence Services. Pacific 2013 provides us with the opportunity to showcase the breadth of our capabilities and demonstrate our industry leadership.”

Northrop Grumman’s airborne surveillance capability will be highlighted with a scale model of the Triton unmanned aircraft system on display.

 “The Triton high-altitude unmanned aircraft system is well suited for Australia. The system can fly missions for 24 hours at altitudes of more than 10 miles, allowing the system to monitor vast areas of ocean and coastal regions. It would be a strong national security asset, capable of performing a wide array of civilian roles, such as responding to natural disasters, bushfires, environmental monitoring and drug interdiction in addition to its considerable military capabilities,” said Irving.

Triton is a derivative of the combat-proven Global Hawk unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance. Its unique suite of sensors allows the system to provide a continuous on-station presence for some of the most demanding surveillance missions. The system’s radar allows the Triton to monitor a full 360-degree field of view enabling the radar to spotlight a geographic area of interest for longer periods to increase detection capabilities for smaller targets, particularly in sea clutter.

A full-scale model of the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter will also be on display at the show. The MQ-8C Fire Scout uses a larger airframe than the previous MQ-8B variant to deliver more range, payload capacity and endurance to naval forces. Fire Scout can land and take off from any aviation-capable naval ship.

In a separate exhibit, Northrop Grumman’s capabilities in integrated solutions for maritime domain awareness will be demonstrated using its enhanced C4ISR Operationally Responsive Enterprise (eCORE) system. eCORE is an ISR integration platform that provides data sharing at all levels of operations to enable rapid mission integration, deployment, support, training and maintenance.

Northrop Grumman’s capability in mine detection will be highlighted at the show. The AQS-24A high-speed mine-hunting system can be towed from the MH-53E and MCH-101 helicopters, and unmanned surface vessels. The AQS-24A and its predecessor systems, AQS-24 and the AQS-14, are the only operational airborne mine-hunting search systems used by the U.S. Navy for the past 29 years. The Airborne Laser Mine Detection System is a laser-based, light detection and ranging sensor system that detects, classifies and localizes near-surface mine-like objects from above the waterline and is complementary to the AQS-24A.

The company’s role as a principal member of the Lockheed Martin-led F-35 Lightning II industry team will also be featured. In addition to producing the F-35 centre fuselage, Northrop Grumman designed and produces the aircraft’s radar and other key avionics, including the electro-optical distributed aperture system (DAS) and communications, navigation and identification (CNI) subsystems. The AN/AAQ-37 DAS is a high-resolution, omni-directional infrared sensor system that provides advanced spherical situational awareness capability, including missile and aircraft detection, track and warning capabilities for the F-35. The AN/ASQ-242 CNI systems provides F-35 pilots with the capability of more than 27 avionics functions while greatly reducing size, weight and power demands.

On display will be a model of the APR-39, which acts as a radar warning receiver and aircraft survivability equipment suite controller, capable of integrating with and displaying data from a wide variety of sensors. The APR-39 provides rapid identification and continuous 360-degree threat warning from radio frequency threats.

Highlighted in the exhibit will be Northrop Grumman’s role in the EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack aircraft, a derivative of the combat-proven, two-seat F/A-18 Hornet. The company is the principal subcontractor and is responsible for design and production of the shipset – the centre/aft fuselage section, twin vertical tails and all associated subsystems – for the single-seat F/A-18E, the two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet, and the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft.

In addition, the latest generation of marine navigation and radar technologies will be showcased. The latest Mod 4 version of the MK 39 inertial navigation solution provides both high accuracy geographic position information, with or without GPS, and precise attitude and heading data for fire control stabilization and weapons initialization.

Highlighted will be Northrop Grumman’s consolidated and secure command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) infrastructure that employs scalable, modular ad open systems architecture with cyber defence to improve maritime C4I effectiveness at lower operational and maintenance cost.

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Press Release,October 7, 2013