• Digital Battlespace

  Lockheed Martin demonstrates Space Fence prototype

  9th March 2012

  Lockheed Martin has demonstrated the capability of its Space Fence radar prototype for the USAF during the system’s preliminary design review (PDR) last month. The …

• Digital Battlespace

  NATO focuses on cyber defence

  8th March 2012

  A ceremony has been held at the NATO C3 Agency (NC3A) to mark the awarding of the NATO Computer Incident Response Capability, Full Operational Capability …

• Naval Warfare

  First USN P-8A Poseidon delivered

  6th March 2012

  Boeing has announced that the first production P-8A Poseidon aircraft has been delivered to the US Navy in Seattle. The P-8A is the first of …

• Defence Helicopter

  Northrop Grumman awarded LN-251 navigation system contract

  28th February 2012

  Northrop Grumman has announced that it will be carrying out work to modify existing software for the LN-251 embedded GPS/fibre-optic inertial navigation system (INS) on …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  BAMS radar flight testing underway

  28th February 2012

  Northrop Grumman has announced that flight testing of the first developmental multifunction active sensor (MFAS) radar destined for the US Navy's MQ-4C Broad Area Maritime …

• Digital Battlespace

  BACN demonstrated during US Army NIE

  24th February 2012

  Northrop Grumman has announced that the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) has been demonstrated during the US Army's Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) 12.1 at White …

• Defence Helicopter

  US Army receives first UTA

  23rd February 2012

  The Longbow Limited Liability Company has announced that it has delivered the first production Longbow UAS Tactical Common Data Link Assembly (UTA) for the Apache …

• Digital Battlespace

  Northrop Grumman completes UK E-3D Sentry repairs

  22nd February 2012

  Northrop Grumman has announced that repairs to a UK E-3D Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (UK AWACS) aircraft have been successfully completed ahead of …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  SGA2012: NG considers reducing Global Hawk running costs

  13th February 2012

  Northrop Grumman is studying ‘more efficient ways’ of operating the RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30 UAS in order to reduce costs and force the US …

• Military Logistics

  Northrop Grumman delivers NGATS to US Army

  9th February 2012

  Northrop Grumman has announced that together with DRS Technologies, it has delivered the first Next Generation Automatic Test System (NGATS) to the US Army. Northrop …

• Land Warfare

  BAE Systems, Qinetiq team for US Army GCV

  9th February 2012

  QinetiQ has announced that it will provide its E-X-Drive transmission as the key component of a hybrid electric drive propulsion system to the BAE Systems-Northrop …

• Defence Helicopter

  Northrop Grumman selected for CIRCM

  7th February 2012

  Northrop Grumman has announced that the US Army has awarded it a contract for the Common Infrared Countermeasure (CIRCM) Technical Demonstration (TD) programme to develop …

• Digital Battlespace

  NG wins CANES navy contract

  6th February 2012

  Northrop Grumman (NG) has been down-selected by the US Navy to design the network infrastructure for the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) programme. …

• Defence Helicopter

  Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force selects ALMDS

  3rd February 2012

  Northrop Grumman has announced that the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has purchased four of its Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) to help protect its …

• Land Warfare

  Qinetiq selected to provide GCV transmission system

  2nd February 2012

  The BAE Systems-Northrop Grumman team for the US Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) programme has selected Qinetiq to provide its E-X-Drive transmission as the ‘key …

Programme Results - Defence Insight

• Military UAS - HALE

  RQ-4 Global Hawk [Japan]

  Background Selection and contract award In 2015, Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk UAS and E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft were selected by Japan ...

• Military UAS - HALE

  MQ-4C Triton (1-4) [Australia]

  Background Three Contracted Units In June 2018, the Government provided Second Pass (Tranche 1) Approval to procure the first of six air vehicles, supporting systems and ...

• Military UAS - HALE

  MQ-4C Triton (5-6) [Australia]

  Background Four Contracted Units In the summer of 2020, Northrop Grumman announced that the Australian Government provided $333 million for three MQ-4C Tritons and associated GCS. ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  Marine Unmanned Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft (MUX TACAIR) (Contracted) [USMC]

  Background MUX umbrella Since 2016, the USMC has sought to acquire a UAV that can be deployed from a vessel, used for various missions, and ...

• Military UAS - HALE

  Long-Range Drones [Norway]

  Background Andøya Ambition On 3 April 2023, the Norwegian MoD released a statement confirming its plans for Andøya, the northernmost island in its Vesterålen archipelago. In addition to ...

• Military UAS - small

  AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY (ANCILLARY) [US]

  Background Aims & Timeline As stated by DARPA, the ANCILLARY programme aims to develop and fly an X-plane that will provide a “leap-ahead” in long-endurance, VTOL-capable ...

• ISR/special mission

  E-6 TACAMO Recapitalisation Programme (E-130J) [USN]

  Programme Background The E-6 Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) Recapitalisation Programme (E-XX) provides for air vehicle replacement and mission systems modernization to augment and eventually ...

• Military UAS - HALE

  MQ-4C Triton [NATO]

  Background NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum During the July 2026 NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum in Ankara, Türkiye, NATO announced that Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  Marine Unmanned Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft (MUX TACAIR) (Uncontracted) [USMC]

  Background MUX umbrella Since 2016, the USMC has sought to acquire a UAV that can be deployed from a vessel, used for various missions, and ...

• Military UAS - HALE

  Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) [NATO]

  Background Purchase While NATO doesn’t have its own forces and depends on its allies, the alliance does have some of its own assets and equipment. In ...

• Bomber

  B-21 Raider [USA]

  Programme Background Development The US DoD is developing a new long-range bomber called the B-21 Raider, previously known as LRS-B. At least 100 units are ...

• Military UAS - small

  Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) (Increment 1) [USA]

  Programme Background Programme Objective The Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) was to provide a tactical ISTAR capability for US Army Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). It was ...

• Military UAS - HALE

  RangeHawk (RQ-4 Global Hawk) [US]

  Background Contract award Northrop Grumman announced in May 2026 that it had secured a $325.5 million contract from the US Army to develop the RangeHawk ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  MQ-25 Stingray (16-76) [USN]

  Background Initial requirements The programme looked different when it began. In 2013, the USN awarded four Preliminary Design Review (PDR) contracts to Boeing, General Atomics, ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) (Increment 2) [USAF]

  Background Increment 1 In January 2024, during the first increment of the USAF’s CCA effort, the USAF awarded contracts to Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics (GA-ASI), ...

Equipment Results - Defence Insight

• Military UAS - small

  ANCILLARY

  Northrop Grumman has developed a demonstrator tail-sitter UAV for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ANCILLARY programme. Northrop states its design is a cost-efficient, multiple-mission capable vehicle built ...

• Loitering munitions

  Jackal

  The Jackal is a turbojet loitering munition designed by Northrop Grumman in partnership with AeroVironment.  It features an open architecture that provides the capability to support ...

• Military - UUVs

  Manta Ray

  Manta Ray is an uncrewed underwater vessel (UUV) developed by Northrop Grumman.

• Major networking projects

  IBCS

  The Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) is a C2 system designed to integrate current and future sensors. The system also improves ...

• ISR/special mission

  Firebird

  Manufactured by Northrop Grumman, the Firebird is a unique platform that features different cockpit configurations. This feature allows the Firebird to be configured as either an uncrewed ...

• Air: Integrated cockpit systems

  H-1 Family of Avionics

  Northrop Grumman produces a family of avionics for Bell H-1-series helicopters.

• Military UAS - MALE

  YFQ-48A Talon Blue

  The YFQ-48A Talon Blue is a Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) from Northrop Grumman and Scaled Composites. Unveiled in December 2025, the system is reportedly lighter ...

• Air-to-surface missiles

  Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW)

  The Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW) is an air-to-ground weapon that will provide strike capability to defeat rapidly relocatable targets as part of an enemy’s anti-access/area denial ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  Model 437

  Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, unveiled the Model 437 in September 2021. The conceptual UAS is derived from a Model 401, or Son of Ares. It ...

• Air: aerial targets

  BQM-74F

  Building on the BQM-74E, the BQM-74F aerial target was developed by Northrop Grumman under a USN contract. Introduced in 2005, it has a new airframe ...

• Air: AEW/fire control radar

  AN/APG-80

  The AN/APG-80 is an X-band active electronically scanned array radar system with approximately 1,000 transmit/receive modules, designed for continuous search and multi-target tracking capabilities in ...

• Guided munitions

  Viper Strike

  The GBU-44/B Viper Strike is an air-launched precision-guided munition (PGM) equipped with a relatively small-shaped charge warhead. It has been optimised for employment in urban ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  X-47B UCAS

  The X-47B is a tailless, strike fighter-sized unmanned aircraft, which was developed as part of the USN's Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration project. The aircraft ...

• Bomber

  B-21 Raider

  The B-21 Raider is a strategic stealth bomber aircraft being developed by Northrop Grumman to succeed the B-1 and B-2 fleets in the USAF service. ...

• Cannons

  30/40mm Mk44 Bushmaster

  The 30mm/40mm Mk44 Bushmaster automatic cannon is a next-generation chain gun weapon in widespread use. The weapon has been designed for system simplicity, external power, ...