GE Aviation has been awarded a contract by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) to provide a stores management system for the MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. The contract includes the installation, engineering, manufacturing and data development of GE's Stores and Payload Controller (SPC) used to control Fire Scout's new weapons system.

"The stores and payload controller provides the tactical and operational ability to further protect troops while accomplishing their missions," said George Kiefer, vice president & general manager of Avionics North America for GE Aviation Systems. "In addition, the SPC brings with it a comprehensive architecture for a wide variety of stores, making it a key systems enabler for virtually any platform, manned or unmanned, in air, on land or at sea."

The stores management system provides a comprehensive system for the electronic control of integrated stores management. This system is designed with standards to accommodate current and future precision stores.

GE Aviation has been providing mission/stores management solutions to a wide variety of military aerial platforms for more than 40 years.  GE has delivered more than 4,500 systems to numerous fixed- and rotary-wing military aircraft operators worldwide.

The system is provided from GE's facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Northrop Grumman will provide the U.S. Navy with an operational weapons system for Fire Scout by 2013.