COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., March 29, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has formed a team to compete for the prime role at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) Joint National Integration Center (JNIC). With a decade of experience supporting the JNIC, Northrop Grumman is well-positioned to partner with the government and other missile defense companies to achieve new levels of capabilities in the nation's Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS).
Located at Schriever Air Force Base, the JNIC is the U.S. Department of Defense's premier missile-defense wargaming center, providing a one-of-a-kind environment for commanders to develop and confirm operational concepts. Northrop Grumman has been the lead contractor at the JNIC since 1995, successfully supporting the development and application of local and distributed modeling and simulation, wargaming, testing, and analysis of national and theater air and missile-defense systems.
The JNIC's role in developing, and now deploying and operating, the BMDS is growing. As each element of this layered capability is deployed and activated, the winning team will work closely with the agency to expand the center's mission to integrate across the full spectrum of development and operational activities.
"Northrop Grumman has formed a world-class team that is committed to helping the agency successfully integrate the various missile-defense elements into a robust operational capability that will protect the U.S., our forward-deployed forces and our allies from the threat of a ballistic missile attack," said Ronald D. Sugar, Northrop Grumman chairman, chief executive officer and president. "As the current prime contractor at the JNIC, Northrop Grumman will build on its solid foundation and the strong partnerships in place to help the agency take the JNIC forward in meeting its new integration and operational missions."
A Request for Proposals was issued this month for the JNIC Research and Development Contract (JRDC), with the final award expected in November 2005.
Northrop Grumman will lead the team and serve as systems integrator for a team that will work seamlessly together as a single entity. Teammates include: ANALEX Corporation, Alexandria, Va.; ARES Corp., Albuquerque, N.M.; Boecore Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo.; Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., McLean, Va.; CAS Inc., Huntsville, Ala.; COACT, Inc., Columbia, Md.; CollaborX, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo.; COLSA, Huntsville, Ala.; Computer Sciences Corporation, Arlington, Va.; Davidson Technologies, Huntsville, Ala.; Gray Hawk Systems, Inc., Alexandria, Va.; ITT Industries, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo.; L3 Communications Corp., Colorado Springs, Colo.; L.C. Wright, Inc., McLean, Va.; Lockheed Martin Corporation, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Marzen Group LLC, Nashua, N.H.; Metron, Inc., Reston, Va.; Millennium Engineering and Integration Co., Arlington, Va.; PHACIL, Inc., San Francisco, Calif.; Raytheon Company, Colorado Springs, Colo.; RNB Technologies, Inc., Arlington, Va.; SPARTA, Inc., Lake Forest, Calif.; Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., Huntsville, Ala.
"The Northrop Grumman team brings extensive expertise in missile defense to exploit the full potential of the JNIC in support of the MDA, the warfighting commands and the Department of Defense," said Frank Moore, vice president and general manager, Missile Defense Division, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems sector. "Northrop Grumman's demonstrated knowledge and strong partnerships across the missile-defense enterprise will not only help the agency integrate and operate the nation's ballistic missile-defense system, but will ensure that missile defense is seamlessly integrated into the nation's broader warfighting capabilities."
Decision makers rely daily on the JNIC for support in resolving integration and interoperability issues related to missile defense. The critical simulation software tool, Missile Defense Wargame Analysis Resource (MDWAR) -- developed for the JNIC by Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and SPARTA -- recently achieved a CMMI(r) Level 5 rating, the highest possible, from the Software Engineering Institute. MDWAR is used to execute the complex simulations at the JNIC and was the principal model used in a wargaming event last month involving operator crews connected from seven operating sites via a combination of operational and research and development network links to the wargame center.
Buz Gibson, vice president and program manager for Northrop Grumman's current JNIC prime contract said, "The JNIC continues to evolve to meet the broader and more complex challenges of missile defense. Meeting new challenges requires new levels of capabilities. Just as we've adapted our capabilities to meet the evolving challenges over the past several years, we are making the changes necessary to meet the MDA requirements of the future."
From detection, to tracking, to engagement, Northrop Grumman is bringing its entire suite of expertise to bear on the development of a global layered missile-defense capability for out nation, allies and deployed forces. Northrop Grumman leads an industry team on the Kinetic Energy Interceptors program and is developing the chemical laser portion of the Airborne Laser. For the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, Northrop Grumman provides the critical Fire Control/Communications System. In the area of sensors, the company is prime for the Space Tracking and Surveillance System and is currently the prime on the Defense Support Program. In modeling and simulation, Northrop Grumman is prime at the Joint National Integration center.
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, based in Reston, Va., is a global integrator of complex, mission-enabling systems and services for defense, intelligence and civil government markets. The sector's technology leadership and expertise spans areas such as strategic systems, including ICBMs; missile defense; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; command and control; and technical services and training.