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Northrop (NOC) Wins a Deal to Support MQ-4C Triton Aircraft

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Northrop Grumman Corp.’s (NOC - Free Report) business unit, Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., recently secured a contract involving the MQ-4C Triton aircraft program. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, MD, has offered the award.

Details of the Deal

Valued at $15.4 million, the contract is projected to get completed by November 2024. Per the terms of the deal, Northrop will provide product supportability analyses for operational level maintenance, task analysis and provisioning data involving MQ-4C Triton jets.

The contract will cater to the U.S. Navy and the government of Australia. Work related to the deal will be executed in Rancho Bernardo, CA.

Benefits of MQ-4C Triton UAS

Northrop Grumman’s MQ-4C Triton UAS is equipped to provide real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) over vast ocean and coastal regions. The system is also integrated with a robust mission sensor suite that provides 360-degree coverage on all sensors, ensuring unprecedented maritime domain awareness of the U.S. Navy.

Triton UAS supports a wide range of missions including maritime ISR patrol, signal intelligence, search and rescue, and communications relay. All these factors keep Triton in demand among defense forces.

Growth Prospects

UAS has been gaining importance lately owing to its cost-effectiveness compared to manned aircraft and zero mortality rate. This has resulted in a huge demand for Northrop Grumman’s MQ-4C Triton. The aforementioned deal is a testament to this fact.

Per a report from Research and Markets firm, the military segment of the global unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market is projected to witness a CAGR of 9% from 2021 to 2026. The massive demand for military UAVs globally may provide a boost to defense major manufacturing UAVs.

It is worth mentioning that Northrop Grumman, being an expert in UAV manufacturing, enjoys immense growth prospects.

Will Peers Benefit?

Apart from Northrop Grumman, other defense majors who will benefit from the growing UAV market are Boeing (BA - Free Report) , Lockheed Martin (LMT - Free Report) and Textron (TXT - Free Report) .

Boeing’s Insitu unit offers high-performance, low-cost unmanned aircraft systems used for ISR. Notably, its MQ-25 unmanned aircraft system brings the right combination of refueling, autonomy, and seamless carrier deck integration to meet U.S. Navy’s goals.

Boeing boasts a long-term earnings growth rate of 4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BA’s 2022 sales indicates an improvement of 21.8% over 2021’s reported figure.

Leveraging decades of expertise in low observable technology including the RQ-170, Lockheed’s Skunk Works unit has developed survivable, interoperable next-generation unmanned aerial system concepts to support future battlespace operations. Some of its notable UAS includes MQM-105 Aquila, Polecat, RQ-3 DarkStar and D-21.

Lockheed boasts a long-term earnings growth rate of 5.7%. The company has a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 63.25%.

Textron’s business unit, Textron Systems’ multi-mission-capable UAS includes the Shadow Tactical UAS, the Aerosonde Small UAS with available Aerosonde HQ vertical-takeoff-and-landing kit and the next-generation NIGHTWARDEN Tactical UAS.

Textron has a long-term earnings growth rate of 12.7%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for TXT’s 2022 sales suggests an improvement of 8.2% over 2021’s reported figure.

Price Movement

In the past year, shares of Northrop Grumman have gained 27.4% against the industry’s decline of 41.3%.

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Zacks Rank

Northrop currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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