NORTHROP WINS NAVY CONTRACT.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. won a $20.1 million contract from the U.S. Navy to continue building aerial target drones - a project that is being relocated to Palmdale. Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures sector was awarded the contract for 71 BQM-74E multi-role aerial target systems and 30 air launch kits. Deliveries are expected to begin in February 2001 - when the current contract for BQM-74Es is completed - and will continue for a year. The drone production line is in Hawthorne, but will be transferred to Palmdale this year. That production line will be consolidated with production of the BQM-34 Firebee aerial target system in Palmdale, said Northrop Grumman spokesman Jim Hart. The new contract increases the company's BQM-74E backlog to 155 units. The BQM-74E is used in more than 80 percent of the Navy's target training missions. The Navy has bought more than 7,200 of Northrop Grumman's BQM-74 family of unmanned aerial vehicles
``This is the continuation of a long-running production line,'' Hart said. By simulating enemy bombers and tactical aircraft as well as anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles cruise missile, low-flying, continuously powered offensive missile designed to evade defense systems. Although the German V-1 (1944) was a simple cruise missile, the cruise missile did not realize its potential until the 1970s, when the United States sought to , the targets help train aviators Well-known aviators People largely known for their contributions to the history of aviation While all of these people were pilots (and some still are), many are also noted for contributions in areas such as aircraft design and manufacturing, navigation or , weapons system and radar operators, along with shipboard ship·board n. 1. The condition of being aboard a ship: on shipboard. 2. Archaic The side of a ship. adj. air defense personnel. The BQM-74E is also used to evaluate various weapons systems. Northrop Grumman announced last year that it was moving the production of its unmanned aircraft systems Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is the term introduced by The United States Department of Defense (DoD) and adopted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to replace the term Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). , including the target drones and the Global Hawk spy plane, to Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. |
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