THE American defence contractor Northrop Grumman has pledged to set up a high-tech systems-integration centre in Britain if its bid for the Ministry of Defence’s £800m Watchkeeper contract is successful.
Thomas Vice, Northrop’s sector vice-president (operations), told The Sunday Times the company was looking at several sites in Britain for a centre that would employ 350 staff.
A Northrop-led consortium is vying with a group led by Thales, the French contractor, to land the Watchkeeper programme, which will equip the British army with state-of-the-art pilotless reconnaissance planes.
A winner will be chosen at the end of the year. The Sunday Times recently revealed that Thales had offered to set up a joint venture in Britain with Elbit, the Israeli defence group, to make and export unmanned planes.
Northrop’s two vehicles — the Fire Scout and the Ranger — will be imported.
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But Vice said the key technology in the programme was in the high-tech sensors and communications devices on the vehicles, and in their integration. Northrop would ensure this work was done in Britain, he said, and would use Britain as the base for some export markets. “The intellectual property would be in the UK to be used by the UK,” he said.
Vice said Northrop viewed Watchkeeper as an important part of its plan to become a major defence contractor in Britain, following the example of its American rival, General Dynamics.