Northrop Grumman Corporation has received a contract, with follow on options, for development of the Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW) missile.
The period of performance for the contract is three months, with three competitive gates for three prime contractors to validate their missile capabilities under a digital acquisition approach that emphasizes agility and innovation.
Northrop Grumman has invested to mature and test its missile design, which meets U.S. Air Force requirements for SiAW and other programs. Harnessing in-house digital engineering capabilities, Northrop Grumman is completing preparations to launch its missile this year. To address changing mission requirements, the solution features open architecture interfaces which will bridge current requirements with future upgrades.
“As a missile leader, Northrop Grumman has a proven history of developing and rapidly delivering long range, highly capable and survivable weapons,” said Mary Petryszyn, corporate vice president and president, Northrop Grumman Defense Systems. “We continue to advance our offering to stay ahead of threats and help ensure our mission-enabling capability will be technologically mature, tested and affordable.”
During Phase 1 of the SiAW competition, the U.S. Air Force intends to align the SiAW missile system technical capabilities to the Air Combat Command requirements and to the Air Force Weapon Government Reference Architecture. Tasks include the establishment of an integrated digital environment to design, develop, and test the initial increment of the SiAW missile system utilizing a digital engineering methodology and model-based systems engineering best practices.
To date, Northrop Grumman has flown and successfully validated its capabilities against relevant, integrated air defense targets. The company will continue to assess its offering through the use of digital engineering and prove its capabilities with more stressing flight test scenarios culminating with a missile launch this year.
The Northrop Grumman solution leverages the Navy’s AARGM-ER, engineering and manufacturing development, low-rate initial production and integration work on the F-35 aircraft. The capabilities demonstrated by Northrop Grumman are relevant and support rapid fielding across multiple missions and platforms.
