The study contract, named Persistent Unmanned Maritime Airborne Surveillance (PUMAS), is worth approximately $1 million for an initial five-month effort, after which the Navy will down select its contractors to continue the study for another seven months. Total value of the two efforts could approach $4 million.

"This is a much broader, much deeper study than the name PUMAS implies," said Joseph Garone, director and integrated product team leader for advanced concepts development in the company's Integrated Systems sector.

"The Navy's mission is to know what's transpiring on the seas worldwide, around the clock and in real time. Unmanned systems will be a major factor in the equation because of their inherent benefits.

"We must determine how those diverse assets that will make up the Navy force structure in about eight years can be integrated into a net-enabled, family-of-systems environment," Garone continued.

"Those assets include manned as well as unmanned vehicles, both air-breathing and space-based; some that are in development today and others that the Navy now operates and will be in service then.

"The eventual system of systems must be the most effective possible, yet affordable within the budget realities of today and the rest of this decade. Our job is to define the key factors."

Northrop Grumman brings significant cross-company strengths to this study. The team, led by its Integrated Systems sector, will also draw on the skills from other sectors in the company that can help ensure the success of the study.

Northrop Grumman will capitalize on its experiences with maritime-surveillance concept development as well as other ForceNet-related achievements. (ForceNet is a Navy initiative that will deliver the full promise of network-centric warfare by more fully integrating technical capabilities with 21st-century warriors). These include the development and testing of militarily secure server-in-the-sky-based networks using today's readily available commercial communications.

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