Curtiss-Wright Congratulates Northrop Grumman on Successful First Flight of the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Aircraft
ASHBURN, Va. - December 19, 2015 – Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division applauds Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) and members of NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance Management Agency (NAGSMA) on the recent successful first flight of NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Operating out of a manufacturing facility in Palmdale, Calif., a Northrop Grumman flight test team conducted the successful flight on December 19, 2015.
Curtiss-Wright is a valued partner on the AGS program, providing two critical onboard flight subsystems. Curtiss-Wright supplies the Integrated Mission Management Computer (IMMC) that controls the aircraft’s flight, and the Advanced Mission Management System (AMMS) that communicates with onboard sensors and relays information to the ground station.
"Curtiss-Wright is very proud to partner with Northrop Grumman to provide advanced computer subsystems that serve on NATO’s important new high altitude long endurance Alliance Ground Surveillance system,” said Lynn Bamford, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Defense Solutions. "We congratulate Northrop Grumman on the continued success of their High Altitude Long Endurance system program and the outstanding result of the new NATO AGS aircraft’s first flight.”
A derivative of the wide-area surveillance Global Hawk, the NATO AGS unmanned aircraft has the ability to fly for up to 30 hours at a time. The high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) system will perform all-weather, persistent wide-area terrestrial and maritime surveillance in near real-time. The NATO-owned and operated system will provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to support a range of NATO missions such as protection of ground troops and civilian populations, border control, maritime safety and humanitarian assistance.
The aircraft is equipped with leading-edge technology, including the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) sensor. The MP-RTIP sensor will provide critical data to commanders during operations, in any weather, day or night. Utilizing the MP-RTIP sensor, the NATO AGS system will be able to fuse sensor data, continuously detect and track moving objects and provide imagery of selected objects.
NATO AGS will be based in Sigonella, Italy. The Italian airbase is already home to U.S Air Force-owned Global Hawks. Northrop Grumman will begin ferrying the first NATO AGS aircraft to Italy in 2016. The system is being procured by 15 NATO nations (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United States), and includes five aircraft and European-sourced mobile and transportable ground stations. The ground stations will provide data link connectivity, data processing and exploitation capabilities to multiple deployed and non-deployed operational users. All 28 Alliance nations will take part in the long-term support of the program.
Curtiss-Wright and Northrop Grumman HALE UAS Systems
An industry leader in UAS computing technology, Curtiss-Wright also supplies Northrop Grumman with the two main integrated mission management computers that act as the "brain" of the Global Hawk and Triton UAS aircraft. Curtiss-Wright has supported Global Hawk from its inception through each variant for well over a decade. Curtiss-Wright also provides rotary position sensors and electromechanical rotary actuators for this intelligence surveillance aircraft.
The Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions division develops and manufactures the IMMC and AMMS units for the AGS UAS at its facility in Santa Clarita, California.
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About Curtiss-Wright Corporation
Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a global innovative company that delivers highly engineered, critical function products and services to the commercial, industrial, defense and energy markets. Building on the heritage of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers, Curtiss-Wright has a long tradition of providing reliable solutions through trusted customer relationships. The company employs approximately 9,000 people worldwide.
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DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited.
88ABW-2015-5510, 10 November 2015; NAGSMA Approved 18 November 2015; 2015-1035, 30 November 2015;
Northrop Grumman 15-2261
