CPI Aerostructures has been awarded a contract by Northrop Grumman to provide seats for full-rate production of E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft.
Under the contract, CPI Aerostructures will deliver seats for the US Navy’s Hawkeye all-weather airborne early-warning aircraft.
The $5m contract follows the previous contract to the same company in 2011.
Designed to operate in the littoral and over land, the platform features an open architecture compliant, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based hardware and software to provide critical capability to protect nation’s interests.
The aircraft can be used by the US Navy to conduct airborne strike, land force support, rescue operations, managing a reliable communications network between widely dispersed nodes and support for drug interdiction operations.
Featuring command and control capability, the aircraft provides expanded battlespace awareness for warfighter, especially in the area of information operations delivering battle management, theatre air and missile defence, and multiple sensor fusion capabilities in an airborne system.
The aircraft is fitted with a completely new radar, featuring both mechanical and electronic scanning capabilities, fully integrated all glass tactical cockpit, advanced identification friend or foe system, electronic support measures enhancements and modernised communications and data link suite.
A total of five seats for the pilot, co-pilot and three crew members will be equipped in three different designs in an E-2D aircraft.
Image: Northrop-built E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft lands aboard an aircraft carrier. Photo: courtesy of Northrop Grumman Corp.
