Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC) through its joint venture, Vinnell Arabia LLC, has this month successfully completed the first year of aviation support for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of National Guard (MNG).

In 2012, Vinnell Arabia began supporting the introduction of rotary wing aviation assets to the MNG with the integration and support of twelve MD530F aircraft. In May 2013, these aircraft were delivered to the heliport, located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“As we approach the anniversary of the rotary wing integration, we celebrate our partnership with the Ministry of the National Guard Aviation Command. This is a significant milestone for our partnership and we look forward to continued program excellence,” said Bob Coffey, General Manager of Vinnell Arabia.

In this first year, Vinnell Arabia has supported the MNG in reaching several important milestones, including:

• More than 500 flights, including 15,000 aircraft movements and more than 2,630 flight hours with zero safety incidents.
• Operational readiness of the aircraft has consistently been above 90%.
• More than 25 pilots and pilots-in-command trained and qualified in the MD530F aircraft.

For this support, Vinnell Arabia has assembled an industry leading team of aviation experts including: PAE, AAR, Inc., QinetiQ North America and S3, Inc. Each company is a leader in aviation sustainment, training and operations. Additionally, this is the only team currently on-site in Saudi Arabia supporting MNG aviation.

“Through Vinnell Arabia, Northrop Grumman has been successfully supporting MNG for nearly 40 years in the areas of training, logistics, sustainment services and operational support,” said Walid Abukhaled, Chief Executive Saudi Arabia, Northrop Grumman.

“This partnership is extremely important to us as we build our presence in Saudi Arabia and enables us to deliver the highly experienced and innovative support needed to meet our customers' requirements,” he added.