CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, December 22 /PRNewswire/ --

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been awarded a contract to upgrade weather and navigation radar systems on Iraqi Air Force C-130 cargo aircraft.

The Foreign Military Sales contract, valued at $5.1 million (USD), was awarded to Northrop Grumman's Sperry Marine business unit by Lear Siegler Services, Inc. Sperry Marine will deliver AN/APN-242 weather and navigation radars to replace obsolete AN/APN-59 systems on the aircraft. The contract also includes funding to develop a new high-resolution flat-panel cockpit display processor for the radars. Deliveries are to be completed by July 2009.

The AN/APN-242 was developed by Northrop Grumman as a form, fit and function replacement for the company-designed and manufactured AN/APN-59 systems on C-130 and C-135 aircraft. It provides weather detection and avoidance, terrain mapping and navigation, aircraft detection, precision air drop capability and beacon/IFF interrogation capabilities. The AN/APN-242 has half the number of line-replaceable units and provides an order-of-magnitude improvement in mean-time-between-failures.

Lear Siegler Services, Inc., based in Annapolis, Md., is a major provider of operations, maintenance, modification, overhaul, systems integration, logistics support and training services to government agencies and commercial customers in the U.S. and worldwide.

Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine, headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., and with major engineering and support offices in New Malden, United Kingdom and Hamburg, Germany, provides smart navigation and ship control solutions for the international marine industry with customer service and support through offices in 16 countries, sales representatives in 47 countries and authorized service depots in more than 250 locations worldwide.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defence and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.

For commercial sales inquiries, contact Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine by phone, +1-434-974-2656 or by e-mail, sales_commercial@sperry.ngc.com. For military sales inquiries, call +1-434-974-2134 or e-mail sales_military@sperry.ngc.com. Visit our Web site at http://www.sperrymarine.northropgrumman.com.

Ken Beedle, cell, +44-7787-174092, +44-207-747-1910, ken.beedle@euro.ngc.com, or Tom Delaney, +1-410-993-6454, thomas.delaney@ngc.com, both of Northrop Grumman Corporation