CONTRACT FOR MORE HAWKS AWARDED ADDITIONAL SIX SPY PLANES ORDERED.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. received a pair of contracts worth nearly $500 million to build six more Global Hawk robot reconnaissance planes and to develop a version for watching ships at sea. Northrop Grumman received a $307 million contract to build four Global Hawks for the U.S. Air Force and two for the Navy, plus a $185.2 million contract for the development and engineering work to add maritime surveillance capabilities. The contracts will add about 100 to 150 people to the company's California work force, but only two to four workers will be added at the Palmdale assembly site, said Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Cynthia Curiel. About 20 or 30 Palmdale employees work on the Global Hawk now. Controlled by computers, the Global Hawk is designed to fly as high as 65,000 feet and stay in the air over a designated area for 24 hours Adv. 1. for 24 hours - without stopping; "she worked around the clock" around the clock, round the clock or more. Shorter in length than an F-16 fighter, the Global Hawk has a wingspan of 116 feet, 22 feet longer than a Boeing 737. The aircraft are designed to fly themselves with preprogrammed missions but can receive commands from a pilot operating from a ground station. A total of seven Global Hawk aircraft have been built thus far, but three have been lost in crashes - one during a flight test out of Edwards and two supporting the Afghanistan campaign. The six-plane construction contract includes sensor equipment and mission control equipment. The planes are supposed to be completed by August 2005. The maritime surveillance development work is expected to be completed by September 2006. Global Hawks are expected to participate in a pair of significant test missions this spring, one in Germany testing equipment for a European version of the aircraft and another flown out of Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. to South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. to test the aircraft's potential for spotting drug smugglers' planes. ``That will hinge on Verb 1. hinge on - be contingent on; "The outcomes rides on the results of the election"; "Your grade will depends on your homework" depend on, depend upon, devolve on, hinge upon, turn on, ride whether the Global Hawk gets pressed into service for the war on terrorism Terrorist acts and the threat of Terrorism have occupied the various law enforcement agencies in the U.S. government for many years. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, as amended by the usa patriot act ,'' Curiel said of the tests' timing. Congress allocated $18 million for the drug-interdiction test and directed that it be carried out under ``conditions typically encountered in the performance of counter-drug surveillance.'' The test was supposed to be conducted last year but was postponed after the Global Hawk was pressed into duty for the Afghanistan campaign. The Global Hawk aircraft flew more than 1,000 hours in support of the Afghanistan war Afghanistan War, 1978–92, conflict between anti-Communist Muslim Afghan guerrillas (mujahidin) and Afghan government and Soviet forces. The conflict had its origins in the 1978 coup that overthrew Afghan president Sardar Muhammad Daud Khan, who had come to . The testing in Europe is expected to be conducted in April. A total of five tests are scheduled to be flown over northern Europe. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color in Verb 1. color in - add color to; "The child colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film" color, colorise, colorize, colour in, colourise, colourize, colour AV edition only) Northrop Grumman has received a contract to build more Global Hawk reconnaissance jets. Northrop Grumman |
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