WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., Aug. 24, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a contract from Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) to supply up to 108 additional global positioning inertial navigation systems (GINS) for the U.S. Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor to fulfill the critical navigation functions of this advanced fighter aircraft. An essential avionics system, the GINS provides Raptor pilots with aircraft attitude, heading, velocity and precise position.
"The GINS provides improved global positioning system acquisition and anti-jam capabilities for the F/A-22 by combining inertial navigation and global-positioning system features with sophisticated software processing," said Mark Casady, vice president of navigation and positioning systems in Northrop Grumman Electronic System's Navigation Systems Division.
The F/A-22 Raptor multirole air dominance and strike system is the world's first stealthy military aircraft capable of simultaneously conducting air-to-air and air-to-ground combat missions with near impunity amid large numbers of sophisticated airborne and ground-based threats. The Raptor's speed, maneuverability, counterair and precision-strike weapons allow it to fly both night and day in all weather.
The 53 GINS, and 50 to 55 options, will be delivered under lot 5 and lot 6 of the approximately $9 million contract over the next two years. Assembly and testing of the inertial navigation systems will take place in Northrop Grumman's Salt Lake City, Utah, facility.
The GINS, part of Northrop Grumman's LN-100 inertial navigation system product line, is ideal for meeting requirements for low noise outputs and high-accuracy pointing. LN-100G uses standard embedded global positioning system modules and supports current global positioning system mandates.
"LN-100/LN-100G is the clear choice for both new aircraft as well as aircraft retrofit applications," said Louis Patalano, Northrop Grumman LN-92 program manager. "The system architecture is flexible and can be adapted to aircraft-specific requirements. The LN-100G provides additional card slots to support a variety of expansion modules and it supports customer hardware and software modifications."
LN-100 technology has been applied to aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, launch vehicles, missiles, fighters, helicopters and unmanned underwater vehicles. The LN-100G, used on both U.S. and international military aircraft including the F/A-18 and EA-6B, has been selected by more than 70 customers worldwide.
Headquartered in Woodland Hills, Calif., Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Division -- part of the company's Electronic Systems sector -- supplies situational-awareness products for international and domestic defense and commercial markets and offers integrated avionics, navigation and positioning systems and sensors for space and high-value platform products, navigation-grade and tactical-grade inertial systems, fiber-optic gyro systems designed to customer requirements, underwater fiber-optic sensors, identification friend-or-foe transponders and interrogators, cockpit displays and computers, and logistics support products and services.