Northrop joins race for next SIGINT aircraft fleet for US Army

Flight Global ^ | 7/8/2010 | Flight Global

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Northrop Grumman has formally entered the race to win a US Army contract to deliver a new fleet of signals intelligence aircraft.

The announcement adds the company to a growing list of declared rivals - including Boeing and L-3 Communications - bidding for the enhanced medium-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance system (EMARSS).

The army wants a prime contractor to integrate a small but sophisticated suite of multiple SIGINT collectors on to Beechcraft King Air 350ERs.

Payloads include an electro-optical camera and low-band communications interceptors.

Northrop has not revealed details about the proposal submitted to the army before the 25 June deadline. But it already boasts deep connections within the service's airborne SIGINT community. Northrop supports the RC-12 Guardrail fleet and supplies the Hunter Green Dart payload for the MQ-5B Hunter unmanned air system.

More recently, Northrop also won an army contract to deliver a hybrid airship called the long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle (LEMV), which is expected to remain on station for up to three weeks. Northrop is partnered with UK-based Hybrid Air Vehicles for the project

[historyrepeatz]

As a follow-on to NASA’s new Muslim outreach mission, the Obama administration’s role for SIGINT will be the sending of “smoke signals of peace” to the American Indian. /partial sarcasm

[valkyry1]

Well new versions of these platforms are certainly needed in a dire way.