Northrop Grumman, ST. AUGUSTINE: Northrop Grumman Corporation has delivered the first of two new Hawkeye 2000 airborne early-warning and command-and control-aircraft to the Taiwan Air Force. The Hawkeye 2000 will give Taiwan an enhanced capability to monitor and control activity within the airspace and seas surrounding the island nation.
The company held acceptance ceremonies Aug. 10 at its facility in St. Augustine where the aircraft was manufactured. Taiwan will receive a second Hawkeye 2000 in October 2004.
“The Taiwan Air Force has trusted and relied on its fleet of four 'eye-in-the-sky' Hawkeyes to monitor its airspace for nearly a decade,” said Timothy Farrell, vice president for airborne early warning programs for Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector. “The addition of Hawkeye 2000 to the fleet will sharpen those surveillance eyes even further and make Taiwan's ability to command airspace as advanced as any nation in the region.”
“There's no doubt that the E-2C will play an extremely important strategic, operational and tactical role in the defense of your island homeland,” said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark R. Milliken, director, Navy International Programs Office, to representatives of Taiwan's Air Force and other guests at the ceremony. “The E-2C is a genuine and proven force multiplier.”
Hawkeye 2000, the fifth generation in the family of Northrop Grumman-built E-2C aircraft, is the most automated airborne early-warning aircraft in the U.S. inventory. Its first combat deployment occurred in 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Hawkeye 2000 boasts a powerful, commercial off-the-shelf mission computer and new advanced color workstations. To date, Northrop Grumman has delivered 12 of 21 Hawkeye 2000s ordered by the Navy in a multi-year production contract awarded in 1999. The two aircraft for Taiwan are procured as part of the same contract.
Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems is a premier aerospace and defense systems integration organization. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., it designs, develops, produces and supports network-enabled integrated systems and subsystems optimized for use on networks. For its government and civil customers worldwide, Integrated Systems delivers best-value solutions, products and services that support military and homeland defense missions in the areas of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; space access; battle management command and control; and integrated strike warfare.
