Navy orders more Northrop IFF systems

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WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., Sept. 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy has ordered additional shipboard identification friend-or-foe sets from Northrop Grumman under a contract worth almost $11.5 million.

The award from the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command is a follow-on, firm-fixed-price contract for five of the AN/UPX-24(V) interrogator sets.

Northrop Grumman said the IFF processor sets will be in an open-architecture configuration.

"This contract builds upon the strong relationship that Northrop Grumman has built with NAVAIR through many years of providing the AN/UPX-24(V)," said Ike Song, vice president of situational awareness systems at Northrop Grumman.

"These new sets will augment the Navy's defenses, providing greater protection for our men and women at sea."

The AN/UPX-24(V) is a major subsystem of the AN/UPX-29(V) shipboard interrogator system and provides a centralized identification system for determining whether aircraft or ship equipped with IFF transponders are friendly or unknown forces. It also provides target data to the ship's weapons system.

Each of the five sets will include a control monitor, a central processor-controller and as many as 22 control indicators.

Northrop Grumman said it expects to deliver the systems, which will be used on Aegis combat ships, by early 2014.