Northrop Grumman's UAVs Having a Good Year

Northrop Grumman's unmanned air vehicle specialists have had a good year. The company acquired Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical last year and has built a new UAV organization around the former Teledyne team, while relocating production and some engineering to Palmdale.

Global Hawk, on display here in the form of an impressively large full-scale model, recently completed its first transatlantic mission, flying unrefueled from the U.S. East Coast to the coast of Portugal and back. The Rolls-Royce-powered UAV, designed to loiter for 24 hours as far as 3,500 nmi from its base, has completed a series of long-duration flights in support of U.S. exercises, acquiring radar and infrared imagery. Earlier this year, the U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $71.9 million contract to build two more Global Hawks, and the company is defining a Block 5 initial production configuration.

In February, Northrop Grumman won a $93.7 million contract to develop the Navy's Fire Scout VTOL Tactical UAV- the VTUAV. Based on the Schweizer 330 light helicopter, Fire Scout is intended to perform real-time targeting and reconnaissance missions from any air-capable ship, including the new DD-21 Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers.

Northrop Grumman is one of the companies selected to perform risk-assessment studies for the Navy's future multi-role endurance UAV. This will be a sea-based aircraft capable of reconnaissance and weapons delivery. In another Navy venture, Northrop Grumman is studying an unmanned combat air vehicle for Navy use. Elsewhere the UK Ministry of Defence has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to study a solution to its Watchkeeper tactical UAV requirement.