Northrop Grumman Awarded Contract by U.S. Navy to Provide Mission Computers for H‑1 Helicopter Upgrades

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — In a first for the H‑1 Upgrade pro­gram, the U.S. Naval Air Sys­tems Com­mand (NAVAIR) has signed a direct con­tract with Northrop Grum­man Cor­po­ra­tion (NYSE:NOC) to pro­vide mis­sion com­put­ers for UH-1Y and AH-1Z heli­copters.

Northrop Grumman’s mis­sion com­put­er func­tions as part of the company’s Inte­grat­ed Avion­ics Sys­tem, pow­er­ing the helicopter’s cock­pit. Click to enlarge

Northrop Grum­man has signed a direct con­tract with the U.S. Naval Air Sys­tems Com­mand to pro­vide Gen II mis­sion com­put­ers for UH-1Y and AH-1Z heli­copters in the H‑1 Upgrade pro­gram. Click to enlarge

Under the $8.9 mil­lion con­tract, Northrop Grum­man will pro­vide Gen II mis­sion com­put­ers to the U.S. Marine Corps Light Attack Heli­copter Pro­gram (PMA-276). The direct sale is esti­mat­ed to sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the H‑1 Upgrade program’s mis­sion com­put­er price. 

The dual mis­sion com­put­ers are the heart of Northrop Grumman’s Inte­grat­ed Avion­ics Sys­tem (IAS) that pow­ers the heli­copters’ glass cock­pits. The mis­sion com­put­ers pro­vide cen­tral­ized con­trol of the IAS, inter­face with the tac­ti­cal mov­ing map, and dis­play both sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness and health mon­i­tor­ing infor­ma­tion. Addi­tion­al­ly, the IAS and mis­sion com­put­ers fea­ture open, mod­u­lar archi­tec­ture that allows for easy sys­tem upgrades and rapid inser­tion of new tech­nolo­gies. Northrop Grum­man also pro­vides the oper­a­tional flight pro­gram soft­ware that con­trols the IAS. 

“As part of the Inte­grat­ed Avion­ics Sys­tem, the mis­sion com­put­ers have proven their excel­lent val­ue and reli­a­bil­i­ty in com­bat,” said Ike Song, vice pres­i­dent of sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness sys­tems at Northrop Grumman’s Nav­i­ga­tion Sys­tems Divi­sion. “We will be work­ing even more close­ly with the H‑1 Upgrade team to pro­vide cost-effec­tive, high-qual­i­ty solu­tions that increase the safe­ty and effec­tive­ness of ser­vice members.” 

The mis­sion com­put­ers will be used onboard UH-1Y and AH-1Z heli­copters that make up the Marine Light Attack Heli­copter Squadrons. Crit­i­cal mis­sion data is shown on four dis­plays, reduc­ing work­load and increas­ing air­crew sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness in sup­port of Oper­a­tion Endur­ing Free­dom in Afghanistan and deployed Marine Expe­di­tionary Units. 

The H‑1 Upgrade pro­gram is crit­i­cal to the Marine Corps. The pro­gram involves replac­ing aging AH-1W and UH-1N heli­copters with upgrad­ed UH-1Y and AH-1Z air­craft, pro­vid­ing sig­nif­i­cant improve­ments in com­mon­al­i­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty and main­tain­abil­i­ty. This reduces life cycle and train­ing costs and decreas­es the logis­tics foot­print for both air­craft. Addi­tion­al­ly, the upgrad­ed heli­copters have 100 per­cent soft­ware com­mon­al­i­ty through Northrop Grumman’s IAS and the same oper­a­tional flight pro­gram. Both the UH-1Y and AH-1Z are in full-rate pro­duc­tion by Bell Heli­copter Tex­tron Inc. 

Northrop Grum­man is a lead­ing glob­al secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny pro­vid­ing inno­v­a­tive sys­tems, prod­ucts and solu­tions in aero­space, elec­tron­ics, infor­ma­tion sys­tems, and tech­ni­cal ser­vices to gov­ern­ment and com­mer­cial cus­tomers world­wide. Please vis­it www.northropgrumman.com for more infor­ma­tion.
CONTACT: Gina Piel­lusch
(818) 715‑2285
gina.piellusch@ngc.com

Source:
Northrop Grumman 

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