ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., April 2, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Integrated Systems sector has delivered the third consecutive E-2C Hawkeye 2000 to the U.S. Navy one month ahead of schedule by using Lean techniques to cut costs and production times for the airborne early warning (AEW) and control aircraft.
"Our Bethpage, N.Y., based Hawkeye engineering organization and the manufacturing operation in St. Augustine have worked to cut the time required to build a Hawkeye 2000 from 42 months to 28 months," said John D. Michaelsen, Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare Systems vice president for AEW Programs. "And, we are working to cut that even more."
This aircraft is the third of 21 Hawkeye 2000s currently on order for the U.S. Navy under a multiyear contract awarded in 1999. Hawkeye 2000 Initial Operational Capability will occur for the U.S. Navy in 2004.
Among the Hawkeye's international users, Egypt and Japan are upgrading their fleets to Hawkeye 2000 configuration and other nations are considering upgrade programs.
Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems, based in Dallas, Texas, is a premier aerospace systems integration enterprise. It has the capabilities to design, develop, integrate, produce and support complete aircraft systems, as well as airframe subsystems, for airborne surveillance and battle management, early warning, airborne electronic warfare and air combat missions. It is also integrating these capabilities for emerging network-centric warfare concepts.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an $18 billion, global defense company with its worldwide headquarters in Los Angeles. Northrop Grumman provides technologically advanced, innovative products, services and solutions in defense and commercial electronics, systems integration, information technology and nuclear and non-nuclear shipbuilding and systems. With nearly 100,000 employees and operations in 44 states and 25 countries, Northrop Grumman serves U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers.
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