Northrop Grumman wins again, this time for BAMS

Northrop Grumman has done it again. After a highly contentious victory over Boeing for the KC-X program, Northrop Grumman has won another high profile, high dollar contract with the Pentagon, this time with the US Navy for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) aircraft. Northrop, with its sweet Global Hawk proposal, beat out Boeing once again on this one along with a Lockheed Martin-General Atomics team following a grueling 89 month competition. The $1.16 billion contract will initially provide the Navy with two Global Hawks equipped with the BAMS suite of electro-optical and 360 degree Multi-Function Active Sensor (MFAS) active electronically scanned array capabilities. This will give the Navy what it likes to call maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) data. Another follow-on phase could include additional aircraft for the Navy.

I've gotta say, I have been a huge Global Hawk fan from the beginning. I've been truly impressed with it's abilities such as 24 hour loiter time and 60k+ foot ceiling. Plus, it just looks menacing. This is just another notch in the belt of Northrop Grumman who seems unbeatable right now.

Click here for a sweet BAMS video produced by Northrop Grumman.

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