[MilCom] NATO Plane

[AllanStern at aol.com]

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050429/BUSINESS/50429
0329/1003

Northrop takes first step toward NATO spy plane
$30 million start may develop into $5.2 billion order
BY BRIAN MONROE     FLORIDA TODAY 
The Melbourne operations of Northrop Grumman Corp. on Thursday secured the 
first $30 million of a $5.2 billion program to build a spy plane for the North 
Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Officials say this first installment is important because it lays the 
groundwork for the program -- which is expected to be worth $1 billion to Northrop 
Grumman's Melbourne operations -- and proved that the nearly two dozen member 
nations could agree on funding for the program. Northrop Grumman won the 
contract last year.
Northrop Grumman, which employs about 2,000 people locally, said it plans to 
shift 25 workers to the program this year and could add 100 engineering 
positions on the contract next year. The jobs would pay an average of $75,000 a year.
On the project, Northrop Grumman heads an international team, called the 
Trans-Atlantic Industrial Proposed Solution, or TIPS, and includes European 
Aeronautic Defence and Space, Galileo Avionica, General Dynamics Canada, Indra and 
Thales. It beat out another team headed by Raytheon Co.
The radar plane, called the Alliance Ground Surveillance craft, or AGS, would 
be a European version of Northrop Grumman's Joint Surveillance Target Attack 
Radar System, or J-STARS, used by the Air Force.
That aircraft, a Boeing 707 outfitted with ground-searching radar in its 
belly, has flown in Operation Desert Storm and currently is flying missions in 
Iraq.
The NATO counterpart would do similar missions, but would be built at an 
Airbus plant in Germany.
Current NATO plans call for about five planes, but Northrop Grumman officials 
are hoping orders will grow beyond that, the way that its J-STARS fleet did.
Alan Doshier, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems vice president, and Tom 
Enders, chief executive officer of EADS Defence and Security Systems, signed the 
agreement during a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
"We are committed, and the TIPS consortium is healthy," said Doshier, who is 
based in Melbourne. "We are more confident than ever in the mandate of NATO 
and each other. We have accelerated our activity to ensure everything will be in 
place well ahead" of the design and development approval expected later this 
year or in early 2006.
"This contract award reaffirms the strong support" for the AGS program and 
"further signals NATO's commitment to get the program under way," Enders said. 
"We expect that this study will provide NATO and the nations with a clear road 
map towards a successful" next phase.
The NATO program is made up of a mixed fleet of both manned and unmanned 
aircraft and ground stations. The manned portion will initially call for five 
Airbus A321 aircraft and the unmanned portion will consist of seven Northrop 
Grumman Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles.
Paul Nisbet, an aerospace and defense analyst for Newport, R.I.-based JSA 
Research, agreed the NATO spy plane contract for the Northrop Grumman team "is a 
big program" and could lead to more revenue opportunities if member countries 
buy the plane for themselves.
"It's a proven platform," he said, adding that J-STARS performed well in both 
Iraq wars.
To put into perspective what winning the NATO contract means for Brevard, 
during the past 15 years, J-STARS -- which costs about $250 million per plane -- 
has added $4 billion to Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems Sector in 
Melbourne.
J-STARS, as well, was slated to have five or six planes in 1985. Northrop 
Grumman, however, recently delivered the 17th and final plane.