The Northrop Grumman Corporation – NOC – Received $20 million contract

The Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) achieved a major milestone by successfully completing the initial Technology Maturation (TM) phase for the U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) program. A key event was an extensive series of in-flight demonstrations of its prototype pod and prime power generation (PPG) system.

NOC has also received a $20 million contract to further advance the critical technology development elements of its Next Generation Jammer solution and mature the concept demonstrator design.

The objective of the flight demonstration was to validate aerodynamic performance of the pod and the ability of the ram air turbine (RAT) design to generate the vast amounts of power needed to meet the Navy’s requirements while reducing overall risk. All test objectives were successfully met and the demonstrated power generation performance exceeded initial estimates, thus allowing Northrop Grumman to seamlessly transition into the Technology Development phase of the program.

The successful flight tests were the result of detailed design and integration activity conducted by the Northrop Grumman team since being awarded a TM contract in July 2010, as well as Northrop Grumman’s broad mission expertise, earned from many years as the industry leader in airborne electronic attack (AEA) and detailed understanding of aircraft integration gained as the AEA system integrator on the EA-18G.

This background provided the basis for the disciplined engineering process steps that got the team to this point, including; mission and operational analysis and trades, preliminary design of the pod and RAT, many hours of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, multiple design refinements, construction of the prototype pod, wind tunnel verification – all leading to the successful inflight performance validation.

Working with the Calspan Corporation’s Flight Research group at Niagara Falls International Airport, the Northrop Grumman team integrated its highly instrumented pod with Calspan’s Gulfstream G-III Airborne Test Bed. These flights successfully demonstrated the ability of the design to satisfy the performance needs of NGJ in a truly relevant environment and validated predicted performance and fidelity of the CFD and wind tunnel analysis.

Calspan Vice President Brian Ernisse, test pilot for the G-III during all of the flights and a former USAF test pilot with extensive experience in the F-22, F-16 and F-15, remarked that the pod-equipped aircraft handled “magnificently” during the flights.

Steve Hogan, vice president, Information Operations and Electronic Attack, Northrop Grumman, said, “A key goal in our Next Generation Jammer approach is ensuring we identify and mitigate technical risks early. I believe these tests go a long way in meeting that goal and are a testament to our team’s innovation, technical know-how and dedication to winning the next phase of this critical program.”

About Northrop Grumman  – NOC

Northrop Grumman(NOC)  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.

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Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.