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DID recently covered DARPA’s Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) and its complex operating system, and also detailed some system design innovations Lockheed was using to test the basic X-47B design at its Helendale facility. Now Northrop Grumman Corp. Integrated Systems in San Diego, CA has received a small increment to continue work on a revised program plan for the X-47B Pegasus.
This is a follow-on to a competitive award, replacing the agreement awarded Aug. 18, 2004 as the X-47B program transitions to Joint Program Office management at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. That August 18, 2004 award stated:
“Northrop Grumman Corp., Integrated Systems, San Diego, Calif. is being awarded a $30,000,000 increment of a $1,037,274,437 other transaction for prototypes agreement to design and develop three X-47B air vehicles, three mission control systems and an common operating system to meet Air Force and Navy mission capability objectives, and conduct an operational experimentation and assessment.”
The follow-on agreement funds the first 11 months of a revised program plan that includes full carrier suitability testing and mission functionality demonstrations, including electronic support measures and multi-ship operations. The new plan also reduces the number of X-47B aircraft to be built from three to two.
Work will be performed in San Diego, CA (73%); Palmdale, CA (10%); East Hartford, CT (7%); St. Louis, MO (5%); Grand Rapids, MI (1%); Santa Ana, CA (1%); Torrance, CA (2%); Costa Mesa, CA (1%); and other locations. It will end in September 2006, at which time a follow-on award is planned to complete the program through December 2011. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the contracting agency (HR0011-06-9-0001).