Northrop Grumman Corporation is participating in the UV Europe conference and exhibition where it will highlight its comprehensive capabilities and experience in unmanned systems.

Northrop Grumman is an industry leader in the ISR domain and has been in the unmanned systems business for more than 60 years, providing 100,000 unmanned systems to military customers in the U.S. and around the world. In unmanned ground systems, the company has served the military, explosive ordnance disposal and hazardous materials units and other first responders for more than 25-years as a leading provider of mobile robotic systems for applications in hazardous and potentially life-threatening environments.

UV Europe takes place 29-30 June 2010 at the Husa President Park Hotel, Brussels, Belgium and will address military and civil unmanned systems operating in all three environments – air, land and sea.

Northrop Grumman representatives will be among the speakers at the conference. Gene Fraser, sector vice president, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems will give a presentation on unmanned aircraft systems in the maritime irregular warfare environment including piracy, maritime patrol and non-combat operations. Trevor Hughes, head of Engineering, Unmanned Ground Vehicles for Northrop Grumman Information Systems sector in Europe will speak on unmanned ground vehicles in the explosive ordnance disposal role.  

“As unmanned aircraft systems technologies mature, modern armed forces are realizing that the integration of autonomous systems into operational networks can result in considerable savings while significantly improving mission capability,” said Fraser. “Unmanned aircraft offer vital persistent intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities for peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions but also have an increasingly important role in maritime patrol and non-combat operations.”

Northrop Grumman announced this month that it has been awarded a $517 million (£350.6 million) agreement to develop up to three Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) hybrid airship weapons systems for the U.S. Army. These new systems will be capable of providing persistent surveillance for more than three weeks at a time.

Northrop Grumman is providing the Euro Hawk® based on the Block 20 Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) UAS. Euro Hawk®  will serve as the German Air Force’s HALE SIGINT system and is the first international configuration of the RQ-4 Global Hawk.

The company is also prime contractor for the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (NATO AGS) system, currently in development at the company’s Melbourne, Fla. facility, in which the Block 40 RQ-4 version of the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft UAV is a key component.

Northrop Grumman has been a leading supplier of unmanned ground vehicles for more than 25-years. From its UK facility in Coventry the company designs, engineers and manufactures a range of unmanned ground vehicles and equipment specifically configured for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), security and surveillance sensing, HazMat and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear applications. Northrop Grumman manufactures the Wheelbarrow vehicle, one of the most capable and reliable unmanned vehicles for EOD operations available. The company is also the prime contractor for CUTLASS the next generation of robotic vehicle for bomb disposal operations being developed for the UK MoD.

Source: Northrop Grumman
Photo: Rob Vogelaar, ZAPP Group