By Nick Gilbert
Peter Luff MP, the Minister for Defense Equipment, Support and Technology and Peter Worrall, Chief of Materiel (Joint Enablers), have visited Northrop Grumman’s unmanned ground system production facility located in Coventry, United Kingdom.
Peter Luff MP, minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology (right) unveils a plaque marking his visit to Northrop Grumman's CUTLASS production facility in Coventry. Pictured with him are (left) Danny Milligan, chief executive of Northrop Grumman's Information Systems sector in the U.K. and (centre) Kevin Rooney, managing director of Northrop Grumman Remotec.
The visit represents the in-service date of CUTLASS with the British Army. The CUTLASS system is an advanced remotely controlled vehicle devised for the Ministry of Defense to perform risky duty operations. It offers cutting-edge technology in a modular design, allowing the user to handle a variety of military and improvised explosive devices. Its highly versatile design enables it to accommodate a variety of tools, sensors and payloads.
The manipulator arm features a three-fingered advanced gripper and nine degrees of freedom for better movement and flexibility inside limited spaces. The robot may operate at high speeds to facilitate rapid travel and can crawl along at very low speeds for delicate operations. The six-wheeled design provides mobility on all kinds of soft and hard landscapes and in all types of weather conditions.
The Chief Executive for Northrop Grumman Information Systems Europe, Danny Milligan stated that CUTLASS will enable users to remotely defuse and dispose improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance, while providing them forensic information systems capability to ensure national security and resilience. Leveraging its expertise in this domain, the company has developed this advanced improvised explosive device disposal capability and anticipates leveraging potential opportunities to introduce this capability in global markets.
Peter Luff commented that with CUTLASS, the United Kingdom-based bomb disposal teams will now have an advanced capability to provide protection to them and the public against the risk of explosive devices. This next-generation device demonstrates the engineering expertise of Northrop Grumman and the United Kingdom subject matter experts who have contributed in its development.
Source: http://www.northropgrumman.com