Northrop Grumman Wins U.S. Air Force Electronic Attack Pod Upgrade Program

HERNDON, Va. — The U.S. Air Force has award­ed Northrop Grum­man Cor­po­ra­tion (NYSE:NOC) a $52.8 mil­lion, 27-month engi­neer­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing devel­op­ment (EMD) con­tract to upgrade its elec­tron­ic attack (EA) pods. The pro­gram has a poten­tial val­ue of $480 mil­lion includ­ing EMD, a low-rate ini­tial pro­duc­tion phase (LRIP) and five pro­duc­tion options. 

“We are hon­ored that the U.S. Air Force select­ed Northrop Grum­man to mod­ern­ize their elec­tron­ic attack pods,” said Tom Vice, cor­po­rate vice pres­i­dent and sec­tor pres­i­dent, Northrop Grum­man Tech­ni­cal Ser­vices. “The Northrop Grum­man team designed an inno­v­a­tive solu­tion that pro­vides our U.S. Air Force pilots with the elec­tron­ic war­fare pro­tec­tion they need while fly­ing com­bat operations.” 

Northrop Grumman’s solu­tion, an upgrad­ed ALQ-131 EA pod, is ful­ly capa­ble of oper­at­ing in sup­port of A‑10, C‑130, F‑15 and F‑16 air­craft and aircrews. 

“A key capa­bil­i­ty for the pod upgrade is our proven dig­i­tal radio fre­quen­cy mem­o­ry, a com­mon com­po­nent for flag­ship elec­tron­ic war­fare sys­tems,” said Jeff Palom­bo, sec­tor vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al man­ag­er of Northrop Grumman’s Land and Self Pro­tec­tion Sys­tems Divi­sion. “This dig­i­tal receiver/exciter tech­nol­o­gy makes a fourth-gen­er­a­tion air­craft sur­viv­able in a fifth-gen­er­a­tion world. Northrop Grum­man is uti­liz­ing mature tech­nol­o­gy across a num­ber of pro­grams pro­vid­ing scal­able and eco­nom­i­cal unique elec­tron­ic war­fare capa­bil­i­ty to gain fifth gen­er­a­tion abil­i­ties in form/fit pack­ages for U.S. Air Force fixed and rotary wing aircraft.” 

Northrop Grum­man has deliv­ered more than 500 dig­i­tal radio fre­quen­cy mem­o­ries which are installed on F‑16s and oth­er mod­ern fight­er air­craft. The com­pa­ny has more than 60 years of expe­ri­ence in elec­tron­ic war­fare pro­tect­ing B‑1, B‑52, F‑15, F‑16, F‑18, F‑35 and SR-71 air­craft and aircrews. 

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: Leah Smith
(703) 713‑4616
leah.smith@ngc.com

Ellen Hamil­ton
(224) 625‑4693
ellen.hamilton@ngc.com

Source:
Northrop Grumman