Navy Plans Triton UAS Test Support Order for Northrop

The Department of the Navy plans to award Northrop Grumman’s (NYSE: NOC) aerospace systems business a delivery order to provide analysis support for demonstration activities involving the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial system.

Northrop will support testing of net-enabled weapons and other warfighting technologies designed to maintain UAS-driven sea control as part of the award, the Naval Air Systems Command said in an award notice posted Thursday on the beat SAM website.

According to the notice, NAVAIR intended to sole-source the award to Northrop because of the company's “requisite knowledge and experience” designing, developing and integrating Triton as well as ancillary hardware.

In February, Northrop secured a $172.4M contract modification to produce two additional Triton platforms and a ground operating base for the Navy. The award comes a month after the long-distance unmanned aircraft conducted its maiden flight over the Pacific region.

Work under the new order falls under a previously issued basic ordering agreement and is slated to begin on Dec. 1.

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