The US Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $3.6-billion fixed price, incentive fee multi-year contract to deliver 25 new E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft, bringing the total number of aircraft on contract to 50.

Developed and produced by Northrop Grumman, the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye is the world’s only aircraft specifically designed as a carrier-based airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system. With its structurally distinctive design – a rotating rotodome and four vertical stabiliser tail configuration – the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye provides unprecedented, 360-degree surveillance to the warfighter.

As the only Department of Defense designed, tested and in-production AEW&C platform, the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye has undergone a significant transformation from previous E-2 models, resulting in revolutionary capabilities. This includes the new, more powerful AN/APY-9 radar system, exclusive to the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, which represents a two-generational leap in radar technology and allows the warfighter to “see” a greater number of targets at much greater distances – as well as new avionics and a glass cockpit.

The Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye programme of record is for 75 aircraft, of which Northrop Grumman has already delivered 13 production aircraft.