Northrop Grumman Receives Major Contract For Guardrail Modernization

The Guardrail intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform.

by Staff Writers
Reston VA (SPX) Sep 05, 2007
Northrop Grumman has been awarded a Guardrail Modernization system integration contract to continue upgrading and enhancing the system, extending Guardrail's operational life beyond 2020. Guardrail Modernization ensures warfighters continue to receive critical battlefield intelligence about current and emerging threats, enhances and more rapidly delivers precision targeting data, and maximizes available combat power and the ability to engage the enemy at will.

Guardrail is a precision targeting, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform with more than three decades of successful worldwide operations, including Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, and the Global War on Terrorism.

The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract is potentially valued at $462 million. The contract's period of performance is for five years with one five-year option. The Army Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors also awarded the first two task orders under the contract, which have a combined value of $25 million, to provide signals intelligence sensor upgrades.

"Northrop Grumman is leveraging our extensive experience in systems integration and expertise with signals intelligence platforms, including eight generations of Guardrail. We are working in close partnership with the Army to enhance Guardrail's capabilities using technology that also supports future airborne ISR and battle command systems," said Dan Allen, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman Mission Systems sector's Intelligence Systems Division. "Guardrail is a proven signals intelligence asset that directly supports the Global War on Terrorism and the future evolution of Army multi-intelligence platforms, including Aerial Common Sensor."

The upgraded Guardrail system will provide advanced signals exploitation capability, enhanced signals intelligence processing, precision geo-location, upgraded situational awareness and overall improved systems performance. The upgrades will be implemented in an incremental, evolutionary approach, addressing threats as they evolve and reducing payload weight and space to facilitate future enhancements.

Guardrail Modernization will also provide a common baseline for hardware and software across the Guardrail fleet and standardize the Guardrail platforms to a single configuration in the field, simplifying operation and sustainment for the warfighter.

"Guardrail Modernization is a cost-effective, low-risk solution for building and fielding an ISR system needed to meet current threats while also effectively addressing threats of the future," said Clark Lewis, Northrop Grumman's program manager for Army airborne ISR programs.

Northrop Grumman's Guardrail Modernization team includes Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, Owego, N.Y., for precision geo-location of target emitters; Zeta Associates, Fairfax, Va., for integrated special signals processing capabilities; and L-3 Communications Systems - West, Salt Lake City, for air-to-ground communications datalink technology.

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