Northrop subsidiary gets Dubai deal

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Europe-based subsidiary, Park Air Systems, has won a $15 million contract from the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation to provide a range of integrated air traffic systems for the new Dubai World Central Airport.

"Our systems will help the Department of Civil Aviation ensure the safe and expeditious control of aircraft at this key airport as it develops and grows over the coming years," said Charles Houseago, chairman of Park.

The Dubai World Central Airport is under construction and when completed will handle 120 million passengers annually using 6 parallel runways.

Park Air Systems will deliver its NOVA 9000 advanced surface movement guidance and control system to manage the tracking of aircraft and vehicles on the ground. The systems uses surveillance systems based on radar and a technology called multi-lateration.

Multi-lateration computes the location of an object by measuring the difference in arrival time of a signal sent by the object to three or more receivers.

The system will assist the efficient management of air traffic, particularly in periods of high volume and during adverse weather conditions.

The air traffic system will also include the NORMARC 7000B instrument landing system.

Ground-to-air voice communications will be provided through an integrated digital end-to-end communication system, combining a multimode digital radio and a voice communication control system, enabling control and monitoring of key radio functions directly from the air traffic control operator position.

Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems, based in the United Kingdom, supplies communication, navigation and surveillance systems for air-space operations worldwide.

Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles ranks No. 3 on Washington Technology's 2007 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.