Tactical situational awareness for U.S. Air Force Airlift Crews to be provided by Northrop Grumman

Posted by John McHale
SAN DIEGO, 16 July 2011. U.S. Air Force officials tasked Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC) engineers to a provide tactical situational awareness to airlift aircrews to improve the operational battlespace imagery in the cockpit under a $65 million contract.
Northrop Grumman engineers will provide the Air Force Air Mobility Command with 58 Mobility Air Forces (MAF) Dynamic Re-tasking Capability (DRC) Urgent Operational Need (UON) systems, including spares, before end of June next year. The systems will be installed in 28 C-130J and 24 C-17 aircraft. The contract also includes two years of training and payload support at four integration sites in the U.S. and three overseas locations.
The MAF DRC system includes a processor/server for command and control of the radios and displays; a secure line-of-sight and beyond line-of-sight datalink; presentation and recording of the existing host aircraft navigational system data; and display systems for the pilot and co-pilot.
Officials at the Air Force Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., awarded the contract.