Scott Nicholas
Northrop Grumman has secured a contract from Eastern Shipbuilding Group to design C4ISR and machinery control systems on U.S. Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Cutter ships for future vessels with updated weapon systems, electronics, range and endurance capacities.
Northrop said Monday the design will also have a larger flight deck to accommodate aircraft operations in severe weather and new systems will include C2 consoles, integrated bridge systems, machinery control systems, navigation and combat data distribution systems.
The Coast Guard plans to develop as much as 25 OPCs to replace the current fleet of medium endurance cutters.
Todd Leavitt, vice president of Northrop’s maritime systems business unit, said the company suite of integrated C4ISR and MCS will look to offer long-term offshore capacity to support the Coast Guard.
Design work will also address an MCS land-based test facility and a C4ISR test and integration facility located in Charlottesville and the company will offer support on integration tasks during production testing and shipboard trials.
Work will also be performed at Northrop facilities in San Diego and Mississippi.
