LOCATIONS
LAND
27 Aug 10. Northrop Grumman Corporation hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony today at its new infrared countermeasures (IRCM) sustainment center in Warner Robins, Ga.
“Today’s ribbon cutting is an example of our commitment to provide the warfighter with an innovative solution to sustain this critical aircraft defensive system,” said Thomas E. Vice, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Technical Services. “This facility also benefits our customers by driving down the cost and providing high-quality, affordable IRCM services.”
“The move from Hurlburt Field to Warner Robins was seamless to our warfighting customers and will allow for increased system availability today with growth opportunities for the future as fielding of the system continues to expand,” said Carl Smith, vice president of Infrared Countermeasures programs for Northrop Grumman’s Land and Self Protection Systems Division. “This latest program milestone continues the partnership between industry and government which is already in place with the U.S. Air Force. It allows us to provide the most affordable and responsive sustainment service possible to the warfighter.”
The sustainment center repairs IRCM equipment for the U.S. Air Force’s large aircraft infrared countermeasures and U.S. Special Operations Command’s directed energy infrared countermeasures. The sustainment center repair team includes Northrop Grumman; SELEX Galileo Ltd., Edinborough, Scotland; AAR Corp, Wood Dale, Ill.; and Robins Air Force Base’s Aerospace Sustainment Directorate.
“This ribbon cutting is the culmination of two years of hard work and fulfills Northrop Grumman’s commitment, as part of the public-private partnership, to move its AAQ-24 sustainment depot to Warner Robins,” said Larry Pittman, Northrop Grumman Technical Services program manager. “Teaming with the customer on this facility allows us to better serve our nation’s warfighters with significant cost savings for our customer.”
26 Aug 10. A year after breaking ground, BAE Systems today celebrated the opening of a new state-of-the-art design and prototyping center in Sterling Heights, Michigan. As part of a five-year, $58.4m initiative, the center is the first facility to open at the company’s new Sterling Heights campus which, upon completion late next year, will include a renovated test track and a four-story office building. The campus will eventually house approximately 600 employees.
“One of our most important company values is customer focus. This center will allow us to be in close proximity to our customer – a key component in further developing an ongoing, collaborative working relationship that supports the design, development and manufacture of equipment that will help ensure the safety and mission success of warfighters,” said Joe McCarthy, vice president and general manager of Heavy Brigade Combat Team Systems at BAE Systems and Sterling Heights Site Executive.
“With this center we can address future vehicle modernization by rapidly integrating capabilities into combat systems while improving time-to-market factors, while also reducing costs for our customer,” he added.
Supported by 40 employees, the new center will house more than a dozen assembly bays for vehicle and subsystem modifications, integration and testing in addition to a host of integral supporting labs and facilities that will provide electrical assembly fabrication, software development and system integration of vehicle control and crew station electronics. The site will also have a full-service machine shop equipped with welding capabilities. The center will also support other company programs including Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Bradley derivatives, M88, M113 family of vehicles, M109 family of vehicles including the Paladin Integrated Management vehicle, Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Medium Mine Protected Vehicle and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle.
When completed, the site will total 198,00