NG completes Euro Hawk assembly

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SAN DIEGO, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Northrop Grumman has completed assembly of the first of a next-generation unmanned aircraft system under a contract from the German Defense Ministry.

U.S. company Northrop Grumman announced it has completed the assembly of its first Euro Hawk UAS for delivery to the German air force. The Euro Hawk is designed to provide wide-area surveillance and reconnaissance for mission critical situational awareness.

The Euro Hawk, based on the company's Global Hawk, is equipped with the signals intelligence, or SIGINT, system developed by EADS Defense and Security to provide "standoff capability to detect electronic intelligence radar and communications intelligence emitters," a news release said.

"This on-time assembly of the Euro Hawk demonstrator reinforces our commitment to providing ground-breaking technology to our customers and solidifies our transatlantic cooperation with Germany and EADS DS," Jim Kohn, Northrop Grumman Euro Hawk program director, said in a statement.

"We're also on track for the Euro Hawk unveiling later this year at our Palmdale, Calif. manufacturing facility after additional checkout and systems testing, followed by first flight and delivery in 2010 in Germany."