Northrup Contract for Interrogator Sets
Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a $16m contract from the U.S. Navy for production of five additional AN/UPX-24(V) interrogator sets for the U.S. Navy and the Australian Navy.
The AN/UPX-24(V) is a shipboard identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) processor system that is used to identify aircraft or ships equipped with an IFF transponder.
The system provides target data to the ship's command, control, communications, computer and intelligence (C4I) system and generates interrogation commands in response to requests for priority target identification. The AN/UPX-24(V) accepts interrogation and control commands and provides target reports to a shipboard weapon system, such as Aegis or the Naval Tactical Data System.
Deliveries for this 22-month fiscal year 2008 contract is scheduled to begin in February 2010 and consist of five full AN/UPX-24(V) interrogator sets with remote control indicators and nine retrofit kits for installation on current systems. More than 90 AN/UPX-24(V) systems have been delivered by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Navy and for international navies.
The new FY08 production systems will be installed on board the Nimitz-class carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) and the first of the new Gerald R. Ford-class carriers, CVN 78.
Northrop Grumman's IFF product line offerings also include the AN/UPX-39 family of single channel or dual channel interrogators, which can replace aging IFF interrogators that can no longer be maintained. Built with modern, digital commercial-off-the-shelf equipment this product can be used for both military and civil applications.
The AN/UPX-39 family meets Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Defense, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards. It also complies with Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon IFF Mark XII Systems (AIMS) and Eurocontrol requirements for identification and air traffic control systems and it supports operating mode 1, 2, 3 and 4, mode A, B, C, D and mode S, with a growth path for Mode 5.
