Hughes Aircraft Wins Contract to Upgrade Norwegian Air Defense

Hughes Aircraft Co. said Tuesday that it had won a $106-million contract to upgrade air defense systems for the Royal Norwegian Air Force. Dan Reeder, spokesman for Hughes, said the aerospace company’s Surface Systems unit in Fullerton will be the prime contractor on the project, which is a joint venture of Hughes and a Norwegian company, Norsk Forsvarsteknologi.

He said the contract will not result in new hiring at Hughes. The company has 9,000 employees in Orange County, including 7,000 at the Hughes Fullerton operation.

Under the contract, the partners will convert Norway’s existing surface-to-air missiles--which knock hostile aircraft out of the sky--to a new missile system created by Hughes and the Norwegian firm.

The new system uses ground-launched advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles instead of the older-generation adapted Hawk missiles. Norway is expected to buy several hundred of the ground-launched missiles for the system under a separate procurement deal.

Such a system will save on costs because Norway will be able to use the new missiles for both its ground-based air defense system and for its fleet of F-16 fighter jets.

Options for future contract extensions could be worth $25 million, Reeder said.