Northrop Grumman [NOC] sees an opportunity to provide “affordable” infrastructures in Asia-Pacific nations having completed its acquisition of an Australian defense services company.
“We believe we’re going to have to put…sustainable and affordable infrastructures in place in countries that, frankly, don’t have anything right now,” Northrop Grumman Vice President and General Manager for Integrated Logistics and Modernization Steve Hogan said Wednesday. Hogan gave unmanned systems as an example.
Northrop Grumman in February finalized its acquisition of Qantas Defense Services Pty Limited, formerly a division of commercial airliner Qantas Airways
. Now known as Northrop Grumman Integrated Defence Services (IDS), the company averaged annual sales about $140 million and provided integrated logistics, sustainment and modernization support, mainly to the Australian government and its military customers (Defense Daily, Feb. 28).
Hogan said many nations take a different approach to infrastructure than the United States, which Hogan characterized as utilizing warfighters to outfit the systems before performing the mission. Other nations, Hogan said, view infrastructure as the responsibility of industry.
Hogan said as Northrop Grumman looks to Australia or Japan, two countries he said that are “strongly considering” unmanned systems, the infrastructure requirements are going to give industry an “incredible opportunity” to control an affordable, innovative approach to providing these nations with information about a particular vessel or subject, or “what they really want.”
“I think the market space there is a very open area that we can shape into, I think, a more affordable solution because of the uniqueness that we can put into a country like that,” Hogan told reporters during a briefing at the National Press Club in downtown Washington. “Transitioning to a new way of doing business in these international partners is a very, very exiting piece. I think it’s going to be a large piece that we’ll have to aggressively go look at.”
Hogan said one program Northrop Grumman is looking to bring to the region is its Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) program, which provides missile threat detection. LAIRCM functions by automatically detecting a missile launch, determining if it is a threat and activating a high-intensity, laser-based countermeasure (CM) system to track and defeat the missile.
By acquiring Qantas Defence Services, Hogan said Northrop Grumman took possession of an aircraft hangar large enough to fit about seven F-18s with enough room left over to work on the aircraft. Hogan said the hangar is also capable of a clean room, or an environment free from dust and other contaminants, nominally used for the manufacture of electronic components. Hogan cited countries with C-130 cargo jets as initial targets in addition to developing other opportunities through the U.S.’ Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program and direct commercial sales to nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Clearly we see those as a regional-hub kind of concept,” Hogan said. “Bringing new weapon systems to those countries is a primary focus, but they’re primarily weapons systems we already have.”
C-130s are developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT].