Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a contract by Saab Aerosystems to deliver Attitude and Heading Reference Systems (AHRS) for the NEURON European unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator. The LCR-100 AHRS units will be built by the company's German navigation systems subsidiary, Northrop Grumman LITEF.

The LCR-100 Gyrocompass AHRS is a north finding attitude and heading reference system based on a state-of-the-art fibre-optic gyro and micro-electromechanical (MEMS) accelerometers. This commercial off-the-shelf equipment provides accurate and uninterrupted attitude, heading, position, velocity and status information. The NEURON demonstrator will be used to investigate and validate technologies needed to design nexgen UCAV aircraft. First flight is expected to occur in March 2012, and test flights will be conducted in France, Sweden and Italy. The NEURON technology demonstrator program is supported by government and industry participation from France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Saab Aerosystems, based in Linkoping, Sweden, is responsible for overall design, fuselage, avionics, fuel system, flight control, airworthiness, autonomy, multi-payload capabilities, structural design and manufacture and ground and flight testing.