Northrop set to receive $4B contract with Navy for Hawkeye aircraft

Northrop Grumman Corp. is likely to win a $3.86 billion contract from the Navy to build new surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.

Northrop’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft would help boost Navy carriers’ ability to detect incoming hostile aircraft and missiles. The five-year contract for 25 Hawkeyes to be flown from aircraft carriers may be awarded by the end of the month.The future contract was revealed in a notice sent by Pentagon acquisitions chief Frank Kendall to Congress last month.

Northrop is spending some $100 million in capital investment on its new 400,000-square-foot Aircraft Integration Center of Excellence in St. Augustine— which will eventually add 400 jobs. The expansion of the facility, where Hawkeyes are worked on, will be completed by next year.