Northrop Grumman to Showcase Unmanned Aircraft Capabilities at ILA Berlin Air Show 2010

LONDON, June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) will again be a major participant in the ILA Berlin Air Show where it will 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).

The air show will take place 8-13 June at the southern section of Berlin-Schonefeld Airport, with more than 1,000 exhibitors from approximately 40 countries expected to attend. The Northrop Grumman pavilion number 642 and exhibit area is located at the west end of the ILA exhibition site. A full-scale RQ-4 model will be on display in front of the joint Northrop Grumman and EADS pavilion located between Hall 3 and the chalets.

"Northrop Grumman is the world leader in advanced UAS, delivering more that 100,000 unmanned systems to military customers in the U.S. and abroad for more than 60 years. That unmatched experience gives us the strong foundation to produce extraordinarily capable and reliable unmanned surveillance systems," said John Brooks, president of Northrop Grumman International Inc. "The Luftwaffe's Euro Hawk® marks several important milestones. 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."

The EuroHawk GmbH joint venture between Northrop Grumman and EADS Defence and Security is developing the Euro Hawk® 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, Calif., facility.

Northrop Grumman is also prime contractor for the NATO AGS system at the company's Melbourne, Fla., 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.

Demonstrating its commitment to transatlantic cooperation, Northrop Grumman leads an industry team of more than 25 companies representing all 15 participating nations to develop and produce the Alliance-owned and operated airborne ground surveillance core capability. The airborne element of the NATO AGS system will be equipped with Northrop Grumman's state-of-the-art Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) ground surveillance radar sensor as well as an extensive suite of line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight long-range, wideband data links provided by European industry. The MP-RTIP sensor was developed to permit a network-centric approach capable of performing the entire range of NATO missions from peacetime to crisis management. Significantly, the ground element of the programme will be wholly produced by European industry, offering the potential for national re-use in other programmes. The AGS system provides real-time data, intelligence and target identification to NATO users within and beyond line of sight.

Northrop Grumman's German and Italian subsidiaries will also be represented at the air show. Northrop Grumman LITEF (Hall 8, location 206) 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 (Hall 7, location 405) 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.

Northrop Grumman, headquartered in Los Angeles, has offices across Europe in: Freiburg and Hamburg, Germany; Pomezia, Italy; Paris; Brussels, Belgium; Oslo, Norway; and at locations across the United Kingdom.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.

SOURCE Northrop Grumman Corporation