Enabling Military Flexibility:
Northrop Grumman's Innovative Approach
By James F. Pitts, Corporate Vice President and President, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
A Dynamic Threat Environment
Ensuring international stability will always be a function of confronting global and regional threats worldwide. Global threats like weapons of mass destruction and transnational terrorism continue to be at the top of the watch lists of the United States and its allies. In the current millennium, regional threats such as maritime piracy, disputes over territorial sovereignty, competition for natural resources, and a high incidence of natural disasters provide strong reasoning for why the world’s armed forces must be highly flexible. A dynamic threat environment is a dynamic mission environment, and assuring military superiority in the future will require a level of military and technological resiliency unlike ever before.
Thought Leadership
Northrop Grumman remains distinct as a thought leader in the global security industry by combining innovative technologies and business practices that address broad mission and enterprise-capability requirements. We like to think beyond the traditional product-oriented technology approach common to the industry. Core technologies and investment strategies combined with innovative engineering approaches provide responsive and adaptable solutions that assure military flexibility, providing the foundation to confront irregular challenges and secure the commons.
Northrop Grumman is uniquely positioned for these changes as we leverage enabling-technologies across the entire corporation to meet the complexities of a dynamic security environment. The continued unpredictability of the demands placed upon the Armed Forces, including the gravitation from maneuver warfare into insurgent or irregular warfare, has occurred alongside a movement from single-function sensors to open, networked, multifunction sensors and applications. No longer can our customers and industry rely on a single technology solution to address a capability gap. As our customers are driven into dynamic threat environments, industry must respond in kind. And we're leading this technological revolution.
Northrop Grumman has unmatched experience and expertise in providing the most reliable Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) and non-kinetic technology across all mission domains. We can meet the demands of irregular combat by scaling sensor solutions to meet both strategic and tactical requirements. A single investment but not a singular capability, open architectures provide the foundation for flexible and adaptable solutions. Such a modular approach also provides flexibility in logistics and maintenance, which can positively influence affordability in the long run.
Actionable ISR
Global Hawk , when equipped with a variety of available mission-specific sensors, provides intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) information over a vast geographic area without putting anyone in harm’s way.
Collecting information and gaining situational awareness is only half of the equation.Translating volumes of quality information into action rapidly will be fundamental to successful operations in complex operational environments.The other half of the equation is exploitation tools that will enable a reduction in manpower to handle the volumes of data and provide queuing to reduce operator workload. Capable platforms and sensors are necessary but not sufficient. Advanced defense forces and security organizations must fully utilize the deployment of ISR technology across multiple platforms. For example, a helicopter, fighter jet, or unmanned craft can serve as both a tactical or strategic asset, depending on the mission requirement. This is possible by migrat- ing technologies for information gathering to new platforms.
Northrop Grumman is providing the Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) surveillance sensor for the Boeing 737 airborne early warning & control aircraft.
Traditional wide-body airborne early-warning and control aircraft equipped with powerful surveillance sensors, such as Northrop Grumman's Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) , and unmanned systems like Global Hawk, can be netted with non-traditional ISR assets, such as the F-35 fitted with advanced sensing capabilities, to provide more comprehensive, operationally relevant data. Northrop Grumman's Distributed Aperture System (DAS) , which provides full 360-degree spherical simultaneous Situational Awareness Infrared Search and Track (SAIRST), missile warning, and navigation FLIR capability to the F-35 pilot, can also be a source of actionable ISR. Distributed Aperture Sensors were recently selected as one of the Top 10 Technologies to Watch in 2010 by Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine.
Discriminating Technology
Our diverse portfolio of technologies comes from investments in, and attention to, what we call innovative, foundational, enabling-technologies such as distinctive engineering materials or open-architecture, data-processing applications. We can create sensor capabilities across air, land, sea, and space with the flexible application of these basic enabling-technologies. This has led to the successful creation of adaptable sensor networks, ground and soldier systems, maritime and undersea systems, space and airborne sensors, and self-protection systems. Flexible technology solutions across multiple domains are the mindset at Northrop Grumman.
Along with our leadership in providing these technologies across all mission domains, Northrop Grumman continues to provide solutions to protect national/civil security infrastructure utilizing the same robust technology set that provides the foundation for flexible solutions. Adaptable technologies used by the military are readily applicable for national and homeland security, enabling a rapid deployment of capabilities to address ever-changing customer requirements.