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The prime has been tapped to upgrade the US Navy’s airborne command post.
Northrop Grumman has been awarded the Integrated Modification and Maintenance contract for the US Navy’s E-6B Mercury platform — a derivative of the commercial Boeing 707 aircraft.
The company has been tasked with performing modifications to E-6B aircraft designed to improve command, control and communications functions, which connect the national command authority with the United States’ Nuclear Triad.
As part of the five-year, US$111 million ($151.3 million) contract, Northrop Grumman is expected to establish a consolidated production line for core modifications.
The company may also assume additional, smaller modification and select depot maintenance tasks as required.
The work is set to be performed from Northrop Grumman’s Aircraft Maintenance and Fabrication Center in Lake Charles.
“We are laser focused on providing the most relevant capabilities while improving mission readiness,” Mary Petryszyn, corporate vice president and president of Defense Systems at Northrop Grumman said.
“As leaders in aircraft sustainment and modernization, the US Navy’s E-6B Mercury fleet is another example of our strong partnership with the Navy in achieving those goals.”
The project forms part of the critical Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) strategic communications mission, in which the E-6B operates across a wide frequency spectrum to transmit and receive secure and non-secure voice and data information.
The aircraft is built to provide survivable, endurable, reliable airborne command, control, and communications in support of the US president, secretary of defence, and United States Strategic Command.
This latest contract comes just days after the Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman for the development of a constellation of 42 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) mesh satellite communications network.
The project, worth up to US$692 million ($953.5 million), aims to provide resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport supporting US military missions around the world.
The network will be designed to connect elements of an integrated sensing architecture, serving as a critical element for Joint All-Domain Command Control.
[Related: Northrop Grumman secures US defence SATCOM contract]
