Norththrop Grumman in India

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Globalization has become a mantra of the 21st Century economic model, and high technology has become one of the vehicles for its implementation, particularly in the defence sector.  Fewer and fewer complex military systems are being developed only to fill national requirements because their development is simply too costly to justify production in limited quantities. Nations are compensating for the high costs of foreign acquisition of defence hardware by “buying into” globalization, sharing the available technology, and participating in its production. International development of these weapon systems not only produces technical marvels, but also tends to knit the participating nations together in other economic realms. Close participation in challenging high technology projects is an expeditious way for companies to to know each others’ strengths and can lead to even more such cooperation, including in the commercial realm.

Even the United States, for years the bastion of technology protection and Buy American constraints, is integrating foreign hardware and technology to mutual advantage. Leading the current charge, in this connection, is Northrop Grumman whose major collaboration with EADS was the basis of selection of the “Transatlantic” KC-45A as the US Air Force’s next generation aerial tanker.  

India is also entering into global, high technology partnerships with its plan for the Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft that will utilize foreign technology in a “made in India” context.  Although it may be argued that India has done this for years with its Russian and British coproduction programmes, the difference will be that Indian industry will manufacture assemblies to be used not only for the Indian Air Force aircraft, but also as “buy-backs” on supplier and third country inventories.

Northrop Grumman, although participating in a number of other cooperative defence projects in India, is concentrating its focus on the vital maritime security and surveillance sector. The company is offering a broad menu of products and technologies directly relevant to that sector and has been in detailed discussions with a number of leading Indian defence firms over the past several years.  Several years ago, the Indian Navy published its “vision” in this context in its Indian Maritime Security doctrine.  Northrop Grumman is using this blueprint to assess where its advanced products and systems would best fit the model and how to maximize the utilization of technology developed by Indian defence firms .

With the advent of various unmanned aircraft systems now, and increasingly in the future, BMC2 becomes a significant factor in maintaining the dominant edge for the nation’s armed forces. Interoperability between not only the nation’s various branches of the services, but also allied forces also requires a robust BMC2 presence. Increasing familiarity and utilization of BMC2 as the central node in the network centric battle space requires the nation to procure the most capable system of its type so that our forces may be equipped with the latest advances in military doctrine and technology for the defence of India.

Power projection,  protection of the vast Indian coast line and Indian regional interests have become of increasing importance to the nation and the Indian Navy (IN) has been chartered to perform these vital tasks. The IN has embraced a network centric doctrine backed by significant defense procurements, as the means to manage this substantial challenge. The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, with its next-generation radar and avionics suite, is the key to meeting the challenges facing the IN. This Airborne Early Warning (AEW) and Battle Management Command and Control (BMC-2) platform provides expanded threat detection capabilities over land and water with greater range and precision than currently available systems.

  The Advanced Hawkeye was designed using an “open architecture” concept, allowing for seamless system upgrades as they become available over the coming decades to maintain system relevancy, such as “voice over internet protocol” [VoIP] and sophisticated electronics. The most significant improvement to the aircraft is the new radar which can “see” smaller targets and more of them at a greater range. The new rotodome contains an electronically scanned array that provides critically important, continuous, 360-degree scanning, which allows operators to focus the radar on select areas of interest.

 The increased capabilities of the Advanced Hawkeye have expanded the aircrafts mission capabilities from the more traditional missions, such as strike and intercept control and maritime domain awareness to the less traditional ones such as humanitarian assistance and communications relay.

The MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) is one platform that could meet India’s rigid persistent surveillance requirements through the fielding of advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance collection capabilities. The Fire Scout is a second generation, mature VTUAV that could provide the Indian Navy, Army and Coast Guard with a proven platform sooner rather than later at an affordable cost, specifically due to the development investment made by the U.S. Navy. Fire Scout can operate autonomously from any aviation-capable ship or landing zone.  It is based on a Schweizer Aircraft commercial airframe with over 20 million flight hours. This “low risk” approach for the airframe allows effective maturation of the entire system within a short development schedule.

The control segment for land-based deployment is in a small-vehicle-mounted version of the exact consoles and other equipment being integrated into ships for operational maritime use of the MQ-8B Fire Scout. It integrates the latest Tactical Control Segment (TCS) software designed and produced by Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems division. This software release, known as B2V4, incorporates updates from RQ-8A Fire Scout flight experience and incorporates provisions for various payloads.

To meet the maritime security and surveillance requirements of countries like India, radar is important. One of the first to be incorporated and demonstrated on the MQ-8B Fire Scout will be a non-developmental Telephonics RDR-1700B maritime surveillance and imaging radar. Northrop Grumman first demonstrated radar capability on the RQ-8A Fire Scout in 2003 using a General Atomics Lynx Radar. That demonstration carried both radar and an EO/IR system. The same demonstration will take place on a company-owned MQ-8B Fire Scout this year.

Additional payloads will be integrated into the air vehicle and control segment in the future including weapons, communications relay and others. The plug and play capability of TCS software and the air vehicle interface software will allow seamless integration of future payloads with MQ-8B Fire Scout.

Perhaps an even more high-profile industrial opportunity to support maritime security in the region is the Indian Navy’s interest in the U S Navy’s  San Antonio class LPD amphibious transport ships, built by Northrop Grumman.  High ranking  Indian officials have recently visited the newest ship in  the  fleet,  USS Mesa Verde  [LPD 19], and have seen first-hand that the LPD is both a sophisticated warship and a means of bringing humanitarian aid to troubled areas-of great concern since the 2004 tsunami which devastated many areas bordering the Indian Ocean. Survivable in even the harshest conditions, this uniquely capable amphibious transport ship has outstanding medical and evacuation facilities and more than enough room to transport and support hundreds of military personnel and their equipment or relief workers and evacuees, and with airlift capabilities to match any situation.

 The LPD platform is ideal for both preserving peace in the region,  as well as providing on-demand long-range humanitarian relief to people in need. The 684-foot-long, 105-foot-wide ships are used to transport and land Marines and/or relief workers, with their equipment and supplies by embarked air cushion or conventional landing craft and Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles amphibious assault vehicles, augmented by helicopters or vertical take-off and landing aircraft. The ships will support amphibious assault, special operations, expeditionary warfare or medical evacuation/global relief missions throughout the first half of the 21st Century.

Providing the military with the proven technology embedded in these state-of-the-art products allows India to dramatically leverage globalization in several critical ways. Primarily, India is able to more effectively not only provide for defence of the country but also to allow force projection to secure India’s regional interests and interoperability with western forces. Additionally, through the many forms of Offset and co-production arising from procuring such equipment, India is able to access the Global Supply Chain and build up its defence infrastructure to support development and export of military products.