LIBERTY LAKE, Wash., 10 March 2008.SprayCool, maker of advanced thermal management products and solutions for the military, won a follow-on sustainment contract with the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s ISR Systems Division to provide additional SprayCool liquid-cooled chassis for the Air Force Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP) program.
The additional SprayCool chassis are being procured to support operational sustainment of three systems installed on the Air Force's U-2 Dragon Lady high altitude surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. The 20-slot VME chassis will support from 400 to 1,200 watts of electronics processing power.
The patented SprayCool two-phase liquid-cooled multi-platform enclosure (MPE) enclosure is unique in its ability to control the operating environment by maintaining optimum temperatures for a variety of computing and power electronics in the chassis.
SprayCool's ASIP chassis are critical because the electronics operate in a tightly controlled environment that requires modulating between heating and cooling throughout the mission. The resulting controlled operating environment provides improved electronics performance and increased reliability over other enclosure configurations. Fundamentally, it is SprayCool's advanced thermal managed chassis that enables the installation of the U-2's high performance ASIP sensor in unpressurized sections of the aircraft.
"This follow-on contract with Northrop Grumman is a direct result of the success demonstrated by our SprayCool chassis during the ASIP flight test program over the last year," says Matt Gerber, president and chief executive officer of SprayCool, "and we are pleased to know that the Air Force will transition the ASIP sensor to operational missions, and that our SprayCool chassis will be an integral piece of the system solution for the warfighter."
Gerber added that the primary reason Northrop Grumman selected SprayCool was that the two-phase liquid cooled enclosure enables installation of their high-performance signal processors in unpressurized areas of the aircraft.
SIGINT is especially critical in the Global War on Terror (GWOT) where intelligence in urban environments is paramount.
The SprayCool liquid cooled chassis will be delivered to Northrop Grumman in 2008.
