The company said in a statement last week it had "successfully completed a program of simulations, demonstrations and tests designed to provide the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance -- BAMS -- program with low programmatic and technical risk."

"Northrop Grumman's BAMS Head Start Program successfully completed four system-level integration and development initiatives, which included: integrated mission system testing; full system simulation as hosted on a prototype mission control system and aircraft simulator; airframe modifications and testing; and initiating air vehicle long lead procurements and capital investments," the company said.

"These pre-contract activities are aligned with our proposed BAMS offer focused on creating the maximum programmatic and technical margins and thereby reducing risk for the U.S. Navy," said Carl Johnson, Northrop Grumman BAMS program vice president.

Over the past four months, the mission system was tested on a Northrop Grumman test-bed aircraft flying out of California and linked to a Maryland-based prototype ground segment, the company said.

"We conducted more than 40 hours of flight testing on 19 flights to validate the benefits of our BAMS architecture and to develop our prototyped sub-systems," said Bill Beck, Head Start program manager.

"We optimized maritime modes on the 360-degree Active Electrically Scanned Array sensor, which was controlled through the newly developed Advanced Mission Management System. In addition, we were successful in demonstrating our network and bandwidth management system that incorporated L-3's dual communication data link system," Beck said.