Airbus and Northrop Grumman Team in Support of RAAF Edinbourgh

Northrop Grumman Australia and Airbus Australia Pacific have announced a strategic teaming agreement to collaborate on sustainment activities at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia.

The two companies say they will seek to collaborate in the sustainment and maintenance of new capabilities that will be based at Edinburgh, by bringing “an array of proven Australian industry partners to this arrangement that will augment those capabilities and expand access to specialty competencies.”

New capabilities scheduled to planned to be based at Edinburgh in the future include the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned maritime ISR aircraft, the Gulfstream/L3Harris MC-55A Peregrine electronic support aircraft, and the MQ-9B SkyGuardian unmanned system.

The Boeing P-8A Poseidon is already sustained by Boeing and Airbus personnel at Edinburgh, while the Team SkyGuardian grouping of Australian companies is expected to be the front-runner for sustainment of the MQ-9B.

“With the imminent arrival of ground-based infrastructure for the MQ-4C Triton unmanned system, we are already working on expanding our presence at Edinburgh,” Chris Deeble, chief executive, Northrop Grumman Australia said in a company statement. “This agreement underscores Northrop Grumman’s commitment to Australian investment across advanced capabilities, skills and jobs in support of the country’s strategic defence programs.”

In a separate statement, Airbus Australia Pacific Managing Director, Andrew Mathewson said, “At Airbus Australia Pacific, we are proud to provide ongoing support to the sustainment activities on critical platforms for the RAAF with Northrop Grumman Australia. Our strategic teaming agreement allows us to expand on our collective capabilities and provide our RAAF customer with the best possible outcomes.

“Both Airbus Australia Pacific and Northrop Grumman Australia have a long and proven heritage in platform stewardship here in Australia,” Mathewson added. “Together, this expanded team has the capacity, capability and credentials needed to deliver reliable and effective sustainment solutions to the RAAF at Edinburgh.”

Northrop Grumman provides sustainment services as platform steward to the RAAF’s fleet of Boeing BBJ and Dassault 7X special purpose aircraft (SPA) at Canberra, and Leonardo C-27J Spartan transports and Airbus KC-30A multirole tanker transports at RAAF Amberley. Northrop Grumman also provides sustainment of the RAAF’s large aircraft infrared countermeasures (LAIRCM) systems at Edinburgh.

Airbus is the platform steward for the RAAF’s Lockheed Martin C-130J transports at RAAF Richmond, and the Lockheed AP-3C(EW) Orions at Richmond and Edinburgh.

This article was published by ADBR on November 6, 2020.

The article was written by Andrew McLaughlin