A Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) business unit will provide procurement and integration support to the U.S. Navy under a $14.1 million contract for the Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System dismounted operations variant.The Defense Department said Monday Northrop Grumman Systems will procure and integrate AEODRS Increment 1 components such as the communications link,  handheld operator control unit and modules for various system capabilities.
The company will perform work in Alabama through August 2017.
The Navy also said Thursday the Naval Sea Systems Command will move forward to the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the AEODRS tactical operations variant or Increment 2.
According to the Navy, the AEODRS dismounted and tactical operations variants, together with Increment 3 or the base/infrastructure operations variant, will form a family of interoperable robotic systems for explosive ordnance disposal missions.
“Through the adoption of this modular, open architecture approach across all three increments we will be better able to integrate emergent technologies and improve overall capability of EOD warfighters, ” said Capt. Aaron Peters, a program manager at the NAVSEA Expeditionary Missions Program Office.
