ExecutiveGov reported that the US Navy “tested the possibility of deploying a Northrop Grumman-built autonomous helicopter from a ship to land to support maritime expeditionary operations at a recent joint service training.” A MQ-8C Fire Scout remote helicopter “took part in the demonstration of the Navy’s Expeditionary Advance Base Operations concept during the Resolute Hunter exercise.”
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Tag: Northrop Grumman
Boom Supersonic, Northrop Grumman to Build High-Speed Emergency Response Military Aircraft
SPACE reports that Boom Supersonic and Northrop Grumman announced Tuesday a collaboration to develop “variants of Boom’s supersonic ‘Overture’ aircraft for military and emergency response.” Boom “emphasized its so-far unproven fleet will be able to support vital missions at high speed, bringing passengers and equipment to critical locations faster than the speed of sound.”
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USN Tests SMAMD System on MQ-8C
Seapower Magazine reported that the US Navy recently had a successful demonstration of an MQ-8C Fire Scout UAS carrying the “Single-system Multi-mission Airborne Mine Detection (SMAMD) System.” The tests included “drifting, tethered and moored mines throughout beach zone to deep waters,” both night and day, in various water depths, and during various weather conditions. The SMAMD System, developed by BAE Systems for the Office of Naval Research, can perform detections in a single pass, with “low false alarm rate,” and sends “real-time detection sent via data link” which enables rapid response.
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Cygnus Boosts ISS Orbit, Departs for Earth after Booster Test
SPACE reports that the Northrop Grumman NG-17 Cygnus “spacecraft successfully reboosted the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time, raising the orbiting lab to its normal operating altitude of around 250 miles above Earth.” The reboost “took place on Saturday (June 25) and marks the first time a Cygnus spacecraft has performed a full reboost procedure.” Cygnus “fired its gimbaled engine in order to raise the space station’s altitude by a tenth of a mile (0.16 kilometers) at apogee and a half a mile (0.8 km) at perigee.”
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Northrop Grumman-Built Fire Scout Deployed Aboard USS Jackson
ExecutiveGov reports that the US Navy “has deployed a Northrop Grumman-built Fire Scout autonomous helicopter aboard an Independence-class littoral combat ship to support maritime intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance and targeting missions in the Indo-Pacific area.” The MQ-8C Fire Scout “on USS Jackson marks the unmanned aircraft system’s first operational deployment to the region.”
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Northrop Grumman to Upgrade RQ-4B Global Hawk with Dynamic Flight Rerouting Software
FlightGlobal reports that the US Air Force “awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to upgrade the RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with ‘dynamic’ in-flight rerouting software.” Northrop Grumman said Monday that the software upgrade for the Global Hawk would be ready for service by 2023.
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Northrop Grumman Unveils Model 437 UAS
Aviation Week reports that Northrop Grumman “unveiled the Scaled Composites Model 437 on Sept. 8 as a low-cost, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) derived from the company’s four-year-old, manned Model 401 demonstrator.”
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Cygnus Resupply Mission to Launch to ISS August 10
ExecutiveGov reported that Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to lift off atop an Antares rocket August 10 for a mission to the International Space Station. The spacecraft will “deliver another batch of NASA’s science investigations, supplies and equipment to” the ISS. The mission “will support research on 3D printing in space, the behavior of slime molds in microgravity, a spacecraft thermal protection system and a carbon dioxide removal technology.”
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