Northrop Grumman to Upgrade Accident Data Recording System for UK's Sentry E-3D AWACS Aircraft

Northrop Grumman to Upgrade Accident Data Recording System for UK's Sentry E-3D AWACS Aircraft

LONDON - Oct. 22, 2008 - Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a contract by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to develop and install a replacement Accident Data Recording System (ADRS) for the Sentry E-3D Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft based at RAF Waddington.

Work will be performed under Northrop Grumman's existing Sentry E-3D Whole Life Support Programme (WLSP). The contract modification for the ADRS replacement is valued at more than $16 million over three years.

"Under the WLSP, we are building a record of success in maintaining high availability for these strategically important aircraft and this is the first of several modifications needed for continued life cycle support of the fleet," said Harry Beardsley, Northrop Grumman Technical Services programme manager for the contract. "The close partnering relationship that has been developed by our joint industry team and the MoD will ensure the successful implementation of this important upgrade."

The modification will remove the existing ADRS, which suffers from obsolescence and poor reliability, and replace it with a solid state ADRS, which meets the MoD's current and future requirements. The Joint Sentry Support Team (JSST) will also update the aircraft and training manuals and perform overall management and system engineering for the new ADRS. The ADRS includes a new aircraft data and cockpit voice recording unit, a backup cockpit voice recording unit and an emergency locator transmitter unit for each aircraft. In addition, an accident investigation kit and ground replay stations will be provided.

The work will be carried out at RAF Waddington, UK as well as at Northrop Grumman's facilities in Herndon, Va., Warner Robins, Ga., and Melbourne, Fla. in the United States.

Northrop Grumman delivers the WLSP for the Sentry E-3D AWACS fleet and is on contract until 2025. The company acts as the design organization, providing long term UK-based technical support to the programme with some 50-engineers located at RAF Waddington. Working in partnership with the Sentry IPT, the Northrop Grumman team provides the complete range of through-life services needed to support the Sentry E-3D AWACS aircraft through to its out-of-service date. Northrop Grumman also provides the radar and in-service support for the radar. Members of Northrop Grumman's JSST include BAE Systems and AAR.

Northrop Grumman in the UK operates from a number of locations: London, Fareham, Chester, Coventry, New Malden, Peterborough, RAF Waddington and Solihull, providing avionics, communications, electronic warfare systems, marine navigation systems, robotics, C4ISR solutions and mission planning, IT systems and software development.

Technorati Tags:
E-3 AWACS, Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), Royal Air Force (RAF), UK MoD