Northrop Grumman Awarded $21.1 Million Navy Order to Add NATO Radio to Hawkeye

The Navy awarded Northrop Grumman a $21.1 million order to integrate the SATURN anti-jam radio into the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye and deliver 94 modification kits by April 2028.

First Published: July 28, 2026, 1:32 PM ET

MELBOURNE, FLORIDA — Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., the fifth-largest contractor to the U.S. federal government, received a $21.1 million Navy order to fit a jam-resistant NATO radio into the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye surveillance plane, as announced on war.gov.

The cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price order, valued at $21,081,363, covers non-recurring engineering, software development and modifications to the E-2D Avionics Flight Management Computer. It also funds production and delivery of 94 modification kits for the Second Generation Anti-jam Tactical Ultra High Frequency Radio, known as SATURN, according to war.gov. Fiscal 2026 aircraft procurement funds for the Navy cover the full amount at the time of award.

The work integrates the SATURN radio to give the aircraft a NATO-compatible communication capability, according to Google. The upgrade lets the twin-engine Hawkeye trade encrypted voice and data with allied forces across a frequency band designed to resist enemy jamming.

Work will run mostly in Melbourne, Florida, which accounts for 99.1% of the effort. Smaller shares fall to West Chester, Ohio, Ronkonkoma, New York, and Laval, Quebec, Canada, according to war.gov. The order should finish in April 2028, and the Navy did not compete it. Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

The award reinforces Northrop Grumman’s grip on the airborne early-warning mission it has held for decades. The Navy gains tighter coalition interoperability, while allied fleets gain a common secure link during joint operations. A sole-source order also locks the service to Northrop Grumman for the specialized avionics work, limiting competing bidders.

Northrop Grumman traces its roots to 1939 and took its present form in the 1994 merger of Northrop Corporation and Grumman Aerospace, according to wikipedia.org. The company earned about $41.9 billion in revenue in 2025 and employs roughly 95,000 people across all fifty states and twenty-five countries, according to wikipedia.org. Its Aeronautics Systems division produces the E-2 Hawkeye, the B-21 Raider bomber and fuselage and radar work for the F-35.

The order is modest against the company’s broader ledger. Northrop Grumman reported a record $104.7 billion backlog in the second quarter of 2026 and raised its full-year sales guidance to a range of $43.75 billion to $44.25 billion, according to defence-industry.eu. This marks the 30th contract awarded to Northrop Grumman in 2026, lifting its total contract value for the year to about $5.4 billion.

Defense contractors have modernized the Hawkeye before. The E-2D superseded the E-2C in service, adding a new radar and mission systems that broadened the plane’s role as the Navy’s carrier-based airborne command post. This latest order continues a pattern of incremental avionics upgrades rather than a clean-sheet aircraft.

Naval Air Systems Command will oversee the next phase of the program, with delivery of the SATURN modification kits due by April 2028. No further decision date on follow-on production has been announced.

The Hawkeye lineage stretches back further than this radio upgrade suggests. Grumman rolled out the first W2F-1, later redesignated E-2, in 1960, and the aircraft entered fleet service in 1964 aboard the carrier USS Kitty Hawk, according to wikipedia.org. Generations of the propeller-driven sentinel have flown from carrier decks through the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. The surveillance franchise it created still anchors Northrop Grumman’s naval aeronautics work more than six decades later.

This contract represents the 30th contract awarded to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., in 2026, bringing the company’s total contract value for the year to $5,447,807,225. It is also the 52nd Department of Defense contract awarded in Florida during 2026. While this is not the largest contract ever awarded to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., whose record stands at $4,800,000,000, it is notable within the Navy portfolio. Specifically, it falls between the 2026 Navy portfolio’s year-to-date minimum of $9,046,496 and maximum of $8,000,000,000. Overall, this award was announced among 5 Department of Defense contracts issued nationwide on July 28, 2026.