The U.S. Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to provide SCORPION and SCORPION II Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) systems to protect soldiers with a remote persistent unattended surveillance capability for improved situational awareness and actionable intelligence.

Northrop Grumman's SCORPION UGS systems have been deployed worldwide. The primary function of SCORPION is to provide persistent surveillance for situational awareness, remote area monitoring and perimeter security.

"While SCORPION remains the UGS system of choice in Iraq, Afghanistan and other deployments, SCORPION II's size, weight and wireless performance improvements significantly increase the available mission set for the warfighter," said Martin Simoni, site director of Northrop Grumman's Xetron facility.

"This contract both supports existing systems and enables multiple organizations to combine their requirements for new systems, saving money for the U.S. government."

Under the terms of this indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract, Northrop Grumman will provide SCORPION and SCORPION II wired and wireless UGS systems and support services over a five-year period.

SCORPION II is the next generation of persistent autonomous surveillance systems for force protection and intelligence gathering.

The systems use seismic, magnetic and/or passive infrared sensors to cue long range, short range and point blank-range thermal or day cameras to detect and assess potential threats.

SCORPION II combines unmatched wireless day and night imagery performance with significantly reduced size and weight, making portability and concealment faster, safer and lower in power consumption and lengthening mission life.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.