Northrop Grumman [NOC] yesterday unveiled a state-of-the-art, $13.7 million facility in Linthicum, Md., with what it says are unmatched capabilities to test sophisticated antennas for military systems, including anticipated business opportunities in coming years involving large-scale, multifunction sensors.
“Northrop Grumman is a recognized world leader in designing, developing and producing state-of-the-art military systems and sensors,” said Ronald Sugar, Northrop Grumman’s chairman and CEO, who took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 30. “This new antenna facility will allow us to efficiently and effectively test the various types of new and improved large-scale, large-aperture phased array systems that will be required by the U.S. military and our allies in the years ahead for both shipboard and ground-based applications.”
Along with Sugar, Wes Bush, the company’s president and chief operating officer, and James Pitts, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman’s Electronic Systems sector, which is headquartered in Linthicum, participated in the event.
“This new antenna facility represents a significant investment by Northrop Grumman in the future of the company’s operations here in the state of Maryland,” said Pitts. “We’re now well-positioned to transition our world-leading airborne multifunction sensor expertise into high-power, large-aperture, multi-function applications involving very large active electronically scanned array [AESA] systems equivalent to multiple fighter aircraft sensors.”
Northrop Grumman said the first antenna array to be tested in the new facility will be the S-band phased array antenna that it is building for the Navy in Linthicum under the Cody Judy Replacement program as part of the Raytheon [RTN]-led industry team.
The new test complex consists of a five-story-tall, 16,000-square-foot facility specially equipped to verify the individual and collective accuracy and performance characteristics of thousands of transmit/receive (T/R) modules that are assembled in sections to form a completed phased array, the company said.
It features the largest scanner of its kind in the world, an indoor 60 foot by 40 foot near-field scanner system that can perform full-scale testing of a broad variety of medium- to ultra-large antenna arrays, the company said. The scanner system, which is in a carefully climate-controlled environment, is capable of position accuracies comparable to the diameter of a human hair and relies on a solid granite foundation consisting of two 75 foot-long parallel beams, collectively weighing 28 tons, to maintain its stability, the company said.
The scanner is capable of recording 300,000 measurements per second, Northrop Grumman said. An anechoic chamber installed inside the facility helps to eliminate reflections that could otherwise distort antenna testing results. A state-of-the-art alignment system for each unit being tested ensures that exacting structural tolerances are maintained across the entire array surface, the company said.
In addition to the Navy’s S-band radar, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems produces the AN/APG-77 AESA sensor system for the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor multirole stealth fighter aircraft, the AN/APG-81 AESA radar for the multinational F-35 Lightning II Stealth fighter jet, and the Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar for the Marine Corps.
Further, it builds the Multi-function Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) airborne surveillance radar for the Boeing [BA] 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft under manufacture for Australia, South Korea, and Turkey.