Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) has secured $350 million in contract funds to produce MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicles, control stations and interim spares for the U.S. Navy.
The company will work on three lot 1 low-rate initial production MQ-4C UAVs,  main and forward operation control stations, tooling and training courseware under a $255.3 million modification to a previously awarded advance acquisition contract, the Defense Department said Tuesday.
According to DoD,  the Navy also ordered nearly $95 million in interim spares for the initial deployment of Northrop-built MQ-4Cs under a previously issued basic ordering agreement.
Work under both the modification and the order will take place at various locations across the U.S. through August 2020 and the full obligated amounts are from the service branch’s fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement funds.
Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall gave Northrop the green light to commence LRIP for the Triton program last week.
The MQ-4C, derived from Northrop’s RQ-4B Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft,  is equipped with a multisensor mission payload designed to gather and deliver intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data to operational and tactical users.
