The company also will demonstrate how the Hawkeye 2000, with its open-architecture systems design and its network-centric connectivity, can integrate a nation's individual command-and-control assets into a single, integrated air picture.

Representatives from those nations will experience the Hawkeye Demonstration Van, which has the same mission system and workstations as the operational aircraft. Potential customers will see several sophisticated modeling-and-simulation scenarios depicting actual Hawkeye 2000 capabilities.

"Our Hawkeye 2000 aircraft by itself satisfies the fundamental airborne early-warning and battle-management requirements for any customer," said Tim Farrell, vice president, Airborne Early Warning Programs, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems.

"But, unlike generic airborne early-warning systems on the market, Hawkeye 2000 was designed to be the key node in architecting a nation's broader command-and-control requirement."

"Other manufacturers sell a sensor in the sky," said Farrell. "Hawkeye 2000 is a server in the sky. It can tie together national decision makers, other sensors and platforms into a single, true, network-centric capability that will help nations manage homeland security and associated crises as well as combat operations."

To date, six nations other than the United States operate Hawkeyes, more than any similar platform. Hawkeye 2000 is the newest generation of this system, and the company delivered the first one to the U.S. Navy in October 2001.

Other nations have either purchased new Hawkeye 2000s or are upgrading their fleets of earlier-configuration Hawkeyes.

Northrop Grumman and the Navy are also developing the Advanced Hawkeye aircraft, which has a next-generation radar and avionics suite that will define the future for airborne early warning and battle management.

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