Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems was created by
Northrop Grumman'sNorthrop Grumman Corporation is an American aerospace and defense technology company formed by the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company was the fourth largest defense contractor in the world in 2008, and the largest builder of naval vessels. Northrop Grumman employs over 122,000...
acquisition of
Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group in 1996. The Electronic Systems sector is a leading designer, developer, and manufacturer of a wide variety of advanced defense electronics and systems. The division has 120 locations worldwide, including 72 international offices, and approximately 24,000 employees. Accounting for 20% of company sales in 2005, it is single largest sector (business unit) in the Corporation.
Headquartered in
LinthicumLinthicum is a census-designated place and an unincorporated community in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 7,539 at the 2000 census. It is the approximate location of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport...
,
MarylandMaryland is a state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east. It is comparable in size to the European country of Belgium. According to the U.S...
(about a mile away from BWI Airport, near Baltimore), Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems is organized thus:
- Advanced Concepts & Technologies
- Aerospace Systems
- Naval & Marine Systems
- Defensive Systems
- Navigation Systems
- Government Systems
- Space & ISR Systems
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems provides airborne
radarRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
systems, secondary surveillance systems, inertial navigation systems and sensors, electronic warfare systems, precision weapons, air traffic control systems, air defense systems, communications systems, space systems, marine systems, naval systems, integrated avionics systems, and postal automation and information systems.
Key products include AESA fire control radars for the
F-16The Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multirole jet fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. Designed as a lightweight, daytime Visual Flight Rules fighter, it evolved into a successful multirole aircraft...
,
F-22The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but has additional capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles...
and F-35 fighter aircraft, as well as the Longbow Fire Control Radar for the
AH-64 ApacheThe AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with reverse-tricycle landing gear, and tandem cockpit for a crew of two. The Apache was developed as Model 77 by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the AH-1 Cobra...
helicopter.
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems was created by
Northrop Grumman'sNorthrop Grumman Corporation is an American aerospace and defense technology company formed by the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company was the fourth largest defense contractor in the world in 2008, and the largest builder of naval vessels. Northrop Grumman employs over 122,000...
acquisition of
Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group in 1996. The Electronic Systems sector is a leading designer, developer, and manufacturer of a wide variety of advanced defense electronics and systems. The division has 120 locations worldwide, including 72 international offices, and approximately 24,000 employees. Accounting for 20% of company sales in 2005, it is single largest sector (business unit) in the Corporation.
Organization
Headquartered in
LinthicumLinthicum is a census-designated place and an unincorporated community in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 7,539 at the 2000 census. It is the approximate location of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport...
,
MarylandMaryland is a state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east. It is comparable in size to the European country of Belgium. According to the U.S...
(about a mile away from BWI Airport, near Baltimore), Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems is organized thus:
- Advanced Concepts & Technologies
- Aerospace Systems
- Naval & Marine Systems
- Defensive Systems
- Navigation Systems
- Government Systems
- Space & ISR Systems
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems provides airborne
radarRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
systems, secondary surveillance systems, inertial navigation systems and sensors, electronic warfare systems, precision weapons, air traffic control systems, air defense systems, communications systems, space systems, marine systems, naval systems, integrated avionics systems, and postal automation and information systems.
Key products include AESA fire control radars for the
F-16The Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multirole jet fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. Designed as a lightweight, daytime Visual Flight Rules fighter, it evolved into a successful multirole aircraft...
,
F-22The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but has additional capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles...
and F-35 fighter aircraft, as well as the Longbow Fire Control Radar for the
AH-64 ApacheThe AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with reverse-tricycle landing gear, and tandem cockpit for a crew of two. The Apache was developed as Model 77 by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the AH-1 Cobra...
helicopter. Other principal products include the
AWACSAirborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, may refer to:* E-3 Sentry, the aircraft developed under the USAF's "Airborne Warning and Control System" program...
radar, the
Boeing 737The Boeing 737 is a short to medium range, single aisle, narrow body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has nine variants with the -600, -700, -800 and -900 currently in production.Originally envisioned in...
-based
WedgetailThe Boeing 737 AEW&C is an Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft. It is about half the weight and has half the engines of the 707-based E-3 Sentry, and mounts a fixed, electronically scanned, rather than a rotating radar antenna. It was designed in response to Australia's RFP for an aircraft...
MESA airborne early warning and control system,
Joint STARSThe E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System is a United States Air Force airborne Battle Management and command and control platform that conducts ground surveillance to develop an understanding of the enemy situation and to support attack operations and targeting that contributes to the...
air-to-ground surveillance radar sensor, the Longbow Hellfire missile, the ALQ-135 radar jammer for the F-15 Eagle, ALQ-218 Tactical Jamming Receiver for the EA-18G Growler and EA-6B ICAP III Prowler, tactical military radars, countrywide air defense systems, Directional Infrared Countermeasures, sophisticated undersea warfare systems, and naval propulsion and power generation systems.
History
Electronic Systems' direct roots date to 1938, when Westinghouse Electric Corporation’s Radio Division moved to
BaltimoreBaltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore City in order to distinguish it from surrounding...
,
MarylandMaryland is a state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east. It is comparable in size to the European country of Belgium. According to the U.S...
from
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
and
PittsburghPittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is...
,
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
. In 1939, Westinghouse more than doubled its manufacturing area in its Baltimore location to accommodate production of the then highly-secret
SCR-270The SCR-270 was one of the first operational early warning radars. It was the U.S. Army's primary long-distance radar throughout World War II and was deployed around the world...
aircraft warning radar. In 1941, an SCR-270 radar detected the December 7th attack on
Pearl HarborPearl Harbor is a harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
; its warnings went unheeded because of high-level uncertainty about the new technology's reliability. The first ground-based radar built for the Army Signal Corps, the SCR-270 proves to be the only model to stay in action throughout all of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. From 1941–1945 the Westinghouse Radio Division manufactured approximately 50 products during the war. Until 1942, most of this was radio equipment; later production shifted to radar products. Wartime production included ground-based and naval radio and radar, electronic fuses, and torpedoes. In 1953, the unit patented key technologies for
Pulse-Doppler radarPulse-Doppler is a radar system capable of not only detecting target location , but also measuring its radial velocity...
, making possible airborne systems that can detect both stationary and moving targets, determine range, and distinguish targets from background "clutter." Pulse-Doppler is the basis for all airborne radars in use today. By 1966, the division designed and developed a miniaturized black-and-white camera that captured images from the
Project ApolloNASA's Apollo Program landed the first humans on Earth's moon. US President John F. Kennedy announced his support for a manned moon landing on May 25, 1961, as part of a special address to a joint session of Congress:...
Lunar Module that landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. In 1967, The world's first solid-state radar, the AN/APQ-120 for the
F-4 Phantom IIThe McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the U.S. Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. Proving highly adaptable, it became a major part of the air wings of the United States...
fighter, was produced by the division. In 1974, the division began development of the
AN/APG-66The AN/APG-66 radar is a solid state medium range Pulse-doppler radar designed by Westinghouse for use in the F-16 Fighting Falcon and in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's C-550 Cessna Citation and Piper PA-42 Cheyenne II's as well as the Small Aerostat Surveillance System...
radar for the F-16; to date the unit has produced over 6,000 radars for various versions of the F-16. In 1976, Westinghouse Electronic Systems delivered the first
E-3 SentryThe Boeing E-3 Sentry is an American military airborne warning and control system aircraft based on the Boeing 707 that provides all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications, to the United States, United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, and NATO air defense forces. It is...
AWACS long-range airborne surveillance radar. In 1996, Westinghouse was selected to design, build and test the radar for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, what became the AN/APG-81.
Expansion within Northrop Grumman
Electronic Systems has been central to Northrop Grumman's aggressive merger and acquisition strategy since its own acquisition in 1996. Parts or all of the following companies or organizations are now part of the sector: Westinghouse Electronic Systems, California Microwave, Navia,
Litton IndustriesNamed after inventor Charles Litton, Sr., Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States, bought by the Northrop Grumman Corporation in 2001....
Advanced Electronics division, Solystic SA, Xetron Corporation, Aerojet Corporation Electronics & Information Systems, and Fibersense Technology Corp. During the period from 1996 to 2005, Electronic Systems' annual sales increased from USD $2.3B to USD $6.6B through organic growth as well as acquisitions.