Northrop’s Global Hawk Draws Interest From South Korea, Japan

Northrop Grumman Corp., the largest supplier of spy drones to the U.S. military by sales value, is seeing “high-level interest” from Asian nations including South Korea, Japan and Singapore, Chief Executive Officer Ronald Sugar said.While export of the Global Hawk, the most sophisticated U.S. unmanned spy plane, is considered highly sensitive by the military, the government is likely to support sales to allies in the region for strategic reasons, Sugar said in an interview.“There is very strong interest on the part of the Air Force and the Navy to have our Pacific allies operate these kinds of machines and share intelligence,” Sugar said yesterday in Paris. “It really creates a bigger web of networked information. The Pacific is a vast area, and the western Pacific is of extremely strategic importance.”U.S. President Barack Obama this week called North Korea’s recent actions including a May 25 nuclear test a “grave threat” to security in Asia, and he reaffirmed the U.S.’s commitment to defend South Korea.Sugar, 60, is in France for the Paris Air Show, where the company has a full-scale model of the Global Hawk aircraft on display.There are a number of countries that have expressed high- level interest in this” aircraft, Sugar said.Sales to Asia aren’t necessarily imminent because “selling cycles are long,” Sugar said. He declined to estimate how much time the negotiations could take.Spending EstimatesAnnual worldwide spending on unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, will double within a decade to $8.7 billion, from $4.4 billion, with more than $62 billion spent over the period, according to estimates released this week by Teal Group, a Fairfax, Virginia-based aviation consultant.“Northrop Grumman has an extremely strong position in larger UAVs such as the Global Hawk,” according to Teal Group.The first foreign sale of Global Hawk was in January 2007, when Germany awarded a $559 million contract to EuroHawk GmbH, a joint venture between Northrop and European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. The EuroHawk contract covers one plane, with a potential for four more, said Randy Belote, a Northrop spokesman.Los Angeles-based Northrop’s Global Hawk drone is flown by the U.S. Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the company won a contest last year to supply a maritime version to the U.S. Navy. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the aircraft supplied 55 percent of the target data used to destroy air defenses while flying only 5 percent of the surveillance missions, Northrop said.Global Hawk can fly at altitudes up to 65,000 feet (19,810 meters) for more than 31 hours powered by a single Rolls-Royce Group Plc engine.Northrop rose 26 cents to $47.11 at 4:15 p.m. in June 17 trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have increased 4.6 percent this year.

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