Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems sector has been named an industry partner on the U.S. Army's Future Combat System (FCS) program by Boeing and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the program's lead system integrators. The win marks a major expansion of the sector's role as a provider of integrated systems solutions for the Army.

Integrated Systems will develop and produce the FCS program's Class IV unmanned aerial system (UAS) based on the RQ-8 Fire Scout vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (VTUAV). "This win is a validation of the robust and reliable unmanned systems solutions that we've delivered to warfighters across all services," said Scott J. Seymour, corporate vice president and Integrated Systems sector president. "We're delighted to be part of the team, and confident that our Class IV UAS solution will become a vital and effective part of the Army's Objective Force transformation."

The Class IV UAS will be a key element of the tactical intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting architecture, providing real-time imagery and data collection and dissemination at the brigade level.

Integrated Systems will base its Class IV UAS solution on the highly successful RQ-8 Fire Scout VTUAV system currently in test and evaluation for the U.S. Navy. The system has been in development and low-rate initial production since 2000.

Fire Scout has successfully flown more than 75 test flights since May 2002 demonstrating its ability to take off, fly, navigate and land autonomously, and collect imagery from its onboard sensor payload. The company has planned additional flight tests later this year to demonstrate other sensors and forward firing weapons targeting.

The company's Baltimore-based Electronic Systems sector has been selected by the Boeing-SAIC team to serve as the aerial sensor integrator for FCS. In this capacity, Electronic Systems will have responsibility for integrating the surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition systems on the FCS unmanned aerial platform.

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