Euro Hawk UAS To Be The Centerpiece Of The Company's Exhibition

Northrop Grumman plans to highlight its key intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities with the Euro Hawk and NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) platforms, which are international derivatives of the RQ-4 High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS), at the ILA Berlin Air Show. The show takes place June 8-13 at the southern section of Berlin-Schonefeld Airport.

Euro Hawk File Photo

"Northrop Grumman (has delivered) more that 100,000 unmanned systems to military customers in the U.S. and abroad for more than 60 years," said John Brooks, president of Northrop Grumman International Inc. "That unmatched experience gives us the strong foundation to produce extraordinarily capable and reliable unmanned surveillance systems."

"The Luftwaffe's Euro Hawk marks several important milestones," he continued. "It is both the first international version of the RQ-4 and the first HALE UAS in Europe. NATO's AGS will follow close behind and mark the second international RQ-4 and the second HALE UAS in Europe. We look forward to building on the transatlantic industrial cooperation and the strong partnerships we have developed through both the Euro Hawk and NATO AGS programmes. Europe is a key market for Northrop Grumman and we have much to offer."

Euro Hawk File Photo

The EuroHawk GmbH joint venture between Northrop Grumman and EADS Defence and Security is developing the unmanned signals intelligence (SIGINT) surveillance and reconnaissance system. Based on the Block 20 Global Hawk configuration with a wing span larger than a commercial airliner, Euro Hawk UAS will be integrated with a new SIGINT mission system developed by EADS and will serve as the German Air Force's HALE SIGINT system, providing standoff capability to detect electronic intelligence, or ELINT, and communications intelligence, or COMINT, emitters. The first Euro Hawk was introduced in an unveiling ceremony in October 2009 at Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, CA, facility.

Northrop Grumman is also prime contractor for the NATO AGS system at the company's Melbourne, FL, facility. NATO AGS will employ the Block 40 version of the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, making NATO the first international sale of this version of the aircraft system.

Block 40 Global Hawk

Northrop Grumman's German and Italian subsidiaries will also be represented at the air show. Northrop Grumman LITEF will display sensors for weapon stabilisation, inertial guidance systems for missiles and Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS)/ navigation systems for fixed and rotary wing aircraft based on fibre optic and MEMS technology. Northrop Grumman Italia will display a full range of its state-of-the-art fibre-optic navigation systems including the LISA-200, the Navex family of attitude heading reference systems and LN 251 / LN 270 high accuracy inertial navigation systems. Systems from Northrop Grumman LITEF and Northrop Grumman Italia are in service on aircraft platforms in the U.S., Europe and Asia and are fitted to the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Tornado and BAE Systems Hawk as well as the Meteor, Taurus and IRIS-T missiles.

FMI: www.northropgrumman.com