Northrop Grumman [NOC] Oct. 13 officially opened its newly extended U.K. facilities for the design, manufacture and technical support of the company’s unmanned ground vehicles.
The enhanced facilities located at Northrop Grumman’s Remotec site in Coventry, U.K. will support the full range of unmanned ground vehicles including Wheelbarrow and CUTLASS, the next generation vehicle being developed for the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Northrop Grumman executives, as well as MoD officials and local political leaders attended the event.
“We have made a significant investment in extending and upgrading our existing Coventry site, improving design and manufacturing facilities and creating a new training and demonstration area, said Paul Davison, vice-president and managing director for Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems sector in Europe. “This now increases the company’s capability to develop, manufacture and maintain the full range of our unmanned vehicles in a secure state-of-the-art environment. The extended facilities underpin Northrop Grumman’s commitment to maintaining the long term operational capability in unmanned ground vehicles of our U.K. and international customers.”
Sir Nigel Essenhigh, chairman of Northrop Grumman U.K., said: “Our expertise in this area is becoming increasingly relevant as unmanned ground vehicles help meet the demands of detecting and disposing of unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices, and provide a wider information systems capability for national security and resilience.”
Northrop Grumman’s unmanned ground vehicle business has been in Coventry for more than 20-years. The company designs, develops and manufactures some of the most capable and reliable unmanned ground vehicles available, from the Wheelbarrow bomb disposal robot to CUTLASS, the next generation vehicle for hazardous operations in development for the MoD. Its wide range of vehicles can be configured according to the operational requirements of the user including explosive ordnance disposal, ground surveillance, hazardous material and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) missions. The vehicles are capable of full integration with command control system applications. The company has more than 2,000 unmanned ground vehicle systems in operation around the world.