Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that it will be a supplier on the Northrop Grumman RQ-4N aircraft for U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS) program.

Aurora joined the Global Hawk team in 1995, when the program was in its infancy. Aurora's composite manufacturing plant in Bridgeport, W.Va., has built the tail sections for every Global Hawk built to date and since 2003 has also built most of the composite parts on the Global Hawk fuselage.

The Navy selected Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman as the prime contractor for the program. In August, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied a protest challenging the Navy's decision. The GAO ruling clears the way for work to get underway. "The Navy order is great news for Aurora and more importantly to the surveillance and reconnaissance protection of our nation," said Aurora CEO John Langford.

"Congratulations to Northrop Grumman and to Aurora Flight Sciences. West Virginia is emerging as America's leader in the complex and technologically advanced arena of composite materials manufacturing, and the men and women of the Aurora Bridgeport facility can take great pride that they are at the forefront of that initiative," says U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. "Their skills and those of other West Virginians are the reason our state is producing cutting-edge aerospace products of a quality and value that is unequalled anywhere in the world."

Aurora employs roughly 150 people in its W.Va. plant, two-thirds of whom will work on BAMS UAS program. Aurora is a Northrop Grumman Platinum Supplier.