U.S. Air Force Awards Northrop Grumman $114 Million Contract  

Photo Courtesy of Northrop Grumman Corp

By Ashley Addington



On Friday, the U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $114 million advanced procurement contract to aid in the construction of three more RQ-4 Global Hawks. 



The contract also provides three enhanced sensor suites, three airborne signals intelligence payloads (ASIPs) and two ASIP retrofit kits. 



"Global Hawk's ability to fly more than 30 hours at high altitudes while gathering multiple types of intelligence data makes it extremely valuable to field commanders who need near-real-time information," said George Guerra, Northrop Grumman's vice president for Global Hawk UAS, in a press release.

"This award is especially important, because it reaffirms the Air Force's commitment to this safe and cost-effective system, which has been supporting our warfighters for more than 15 years in the U.S. and abroad." 



The UAS has been used for a variety of missions abroad, including assisting soldiers in the Middle East, assessing earthquake damage in Haiti and Japan, and investigating hurricanes for environmental research over the Atlantic Ocean. 



The Global Hawk can fly up to altitudes of 60,000 feet and have a range of 12,300 nautical miles. 



The completion of the new systems is estimated to be done by 2015.