Northrop Grumman Gets New Missile Defence Contract

Under this new contract from the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the defense contract giant Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) will perform manufacturing and production readiness systems engineering for MDA’s Precision Tracking Space System (PTSS).

Zumwalt Destroyer Supporters Hope For Revival

Photo credit: Northrop Grumman

Any time a chief of naval operations (CNO) gets ready to leave, U.S. Navy shipbuilding programs on that CNO’s hit list look at the transition as a resurrection opportunity. And no vessel program would stand to benefit more from Adm. Gary Roughead’s departure this fall than the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer.

Troubled Space-Based Infrared Satellite Program Finally Gets Off the Ground

SBIRS-High and SBIRS-Low.

At one time the two missile defense satellite systems were notorious examples of over budget, technologically challenged military space programs.

SBIRS — space-based infrared systems — was conceived in the early 1990s as the next-generation of spacecraft that could not only warn when intercontinental or theater ballistic rockets were being launched, but track them accurately enough to possibly shoot them down with a missile defense system.

U.S. Navy’s AMDR Program Sets Big Goals

Aviation Week reports:

Northrop Grumman and Raytheon see the U.S. Navy’s Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) program as a way to break the stranglehold Lockheed Martin’s Aegis system has on naval integrated ship and ballistic missile defense (BMD). But Lockheed Martin believes the five-decade-long Aegis pedigree should make the company the front-runner for AMDR.

U.S. Missile Engineers to Get New Simulation Tool

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency plans to award a $595 million contract in July for the Objective Simulation Framework (OSF), a suite of software that would be used to evaluate elements of the U.S. antimissile system before their deployment. The agency operates two modeling and simulation frameworks: the Digital Simulation Architecture digital representation and the Single Stimulation Framework, software that stimulates missile defense components by injecting simulated signals. The agency plans to replace those frameworks by merging them to create OSF.

Two industry teams have formed to pursue the OSF contract. Northrop Grumman is leading a team in partnership with Boeing, and Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Ala., is working with Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

Combining the two suites would provide “a more robust, flexible and affordable framework,” said Kelley Zelickson, Northrop’s vice president of air and missile defense systems.

MDA Drops Target-Acquisition From Next Sats

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will not include a target-acquisition sensor in its forthcoming missile-tracking satellites, as part of an effort to streamline the system and control costs.

The agency’s new design for its next space-based missile-tracking system will be simpler than the two Northrop Grumman Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellites now conducting a demonstration in space, according to MDA and industry officials.

Northrop Losses Bid to Work on $1.7 billion Interceptor Missile

Northrop Grumman Corp. has lost a bid to compete in a winner-take-all contest for initial development and production of a new interceptor missile intended to let U.S. forces hit long-range Iranian missiles.

100 Northrop Grumman Employees in Huntsville get Furlough Notices

One hundred Northrop Grumman  employees in Huntsville are receiving notices they could be furloughed in 60 days after one of the company’s contracts for the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense system ends.