Northrop-Grumman to Provide Multi-Role Radar to US Marine Corps

Released on Wednesday, April 04, 2007

BALTIMORE, April 4, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) a contract valued at $256.6 million to develop its new Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR), which consolidates the missions of five Marine Corps radars into a single multi-role radar system.

The contract scope of work during this first program phase includes system development, fabrication and test of the Increment I system, low rate initial production of two G/ATOR systems and full-rate production of an additional 15 systems, and logistics support. The Marine Corps' end state objective is a total of 63 G/ATOR systems.

G/ATOR is a highly mobile system intended to fully support the Marine Corps' expeditionary warfare requirements. The new radar system will provide the Marines with enhanced capabilities to detect, track, and provide target quality data to engage hostile aircraft, cruise missiles, unmanned air vehicles, rockets, mortars, and artillery. G/ATOR will also provide robust air traffic control capabilities to enhance the safety of Marine Corps air operations.

G/ATOR will enable enhanced operational capabilities using Northrop Grumman's proven Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar technology. This AESA architecture will allow G/ATOR to provide multi-mission performance and the ability to automatically adapt to dynamic battlefield conditions, at significantly lower operation and maintenance costs compared to existing radar systems. G/ATOR incorporates a scaleable open system architecture and multi-network connectivity to ensure compatibility with Navy, other U.S. Department of Defense and allied command and control systems.

"We look forward to teaming with the Marine Corps and leveraging Northrop Grumman's decades of expertise and experience in designing and building mobile air defense radar systems," said Emmitt E. Gibson, vice president of Ground Based Tactical Radars at Northrop Grumman. "Our company brings extensive capabilities in data fusion, correlation, tracking and network connectivity to the Marine Corps' next generation multi-mission radar system."

Northrop Grumman's Baltimore-based Electronic Systems sector will serve as the prime contractor for the G/ATOR program. Key members of the G/ATOR team include Sensis Corporation, Syracuse, N.Y.; CEA Technologies, Inc., Canberra, Australia; Techrizon, Lawton, Okla.; and Caterpillar Logistics, Morton, Ill.