Northrop Grumman Italy to supply Nato

MEADS is a jointly financed trans-Atlantic cooperative effort between the U.S., Germany, and Italy to develop an air and missile defence system that is tactically mobile and transportable. Under the contract, US based Northrop Grumman's Italian subsidiary, Northrop Grumman Italia, will be responsible for the navigation and localization system that supports the radars and launchers which are part of the MEADS programme. "We have been providing military navigation systems and services to the Italian government as well as other European nations for nearly 50 years," said Giovanni Morelli, business development director for Northrop Grumman Italia. "The proven capabilities of our navigation systems will help enable MEADS to offer significant improvements over existing defence systems." MEADS is planned to replace Hawk and Patriot systems worldwide and is aimed at protecting manoeuvring forces and fixed installations against current and next-generation missile threats, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft. The system is designed for rapid deployment and tactical mobility. The design and development phase of the MEADS programme first began in 2004 and is managed by MEADS International, a multinational joint venture between MBDA Italia in Italy, Lenkflugkorpersysteme (LFK) in Germany and Lockheed Martin in the U.S.