Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum, Ms., is being awarded a $9.7m cost-plus-fixed-fee task order for Aperstructures. "Aperstructures" is an Office of Naval Research coined word developed from the concept of incorporating the structural component of an aperture into the load carrying members of a ship's superstructure. The Aperstructures program herein addresses risk reduction for the incorporation of large and small arrays into a notional superstructure. This program will demonstrate the structural integrity of the integrated radar/structure analytically and with verification through testing. Work will be performed in Linthicum, Md., and work is expected to be completed Aug. 2011. Contract funds in the amount of $9,771,525 will expire at end of current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under an unrestricted order ONR-BAA Number 08-01. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (N00014-08-C-0478).