Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Woodland Hills, California, is awarded a $7,781,824 modification to a previously awarded contract. This modification increases the ceiling for the production and delivery of an additional 32 H-1 tech refresh mission computers in support of the AH-1Z aircraft for the government of Nigeria. Going back to April 2022, the US State Department made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to the Government of Nigeria of twelve AH-1Z Attack helicopters and related equipment for an estimated cost of USD 997 million. Work will be performed in Salt Lake City, Utah (55%); Baltimore, Maryland (25%); and Woodland Hills, California (20%), and is expected to be completed in June 2024. U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
The Government of Nigeria has requested to buy 12 AH-1Z Attack Helicopters; 28 T-700 GE 401C engines; and 2,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) guidance sections. Also included is Night Vision Cueing Display (NVCD); commercial variant GPS with Standard Positioning Service (SPS); communication equipment; electronic warfare systems; AN/AVS-9 Aviator’s Night Vision Imaging System; M197 20mm machine gun; Target Sight System (TSS); support equipment; spare engine containers; spare parts; tools equipment; technical data; publications; personnel training and training equipment; Mission Planning system; and oversight of facilities construction to include the provisioning of plans, drawings and specifications; $25M of case funds will be allocated for institutional and technical assistance to the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) to continue Air Ground Integration (AGI) program.
The Bell AH-1Z Viper is a twin-engine attack helicopter, based on the AH-1W SuperCobra, designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Bell Helicopter. It is one of the latest members of the prolific Bell Huey family. It is often called “Zulu Cobra”, based on the military phonetic alphabet pronunciation of its variant letter. The AH-1Z was developed during the 1990s and 2000s as a part of the H-1 upgrade program on behalf of the United States Marine Corps (USMC). It is essentially a modernisation of the service’s existing AH-1Ws, and was originally intended to be a rebuild program before subsequent orders were made for new-build helicopters instead. The AH-1Z and Bell UH-1Y Venom utility helicopter share a common tailboom, engines, rotor system, drivetrain, avionics architecture, software, controls and displays for over 84% identical components.
Northrop Grumman’s mission systems solution for the H-1 fleet is trusted and combat-proven, with more than 450,000 total flight hours. The innovative processes, capabilities and open architecture developed for the H-1 fleet are directly applicable to other platforms and could be utilized in future aircraft development programs such as NAVAIR Vertical Take Off and Landing Family of Systems (VTOL FoS), MUX, and others. Link-16 is a secure data link that allows H-1 crews to share data and communications with other aircraft and users on military networks. This capability is a critical mission enabler as the Department of Defense moves to Joint All-Domain Command and Control. Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 95,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers
