Northrop Grumman's Long Island unit is not directly involved in the fascinating pilotless jet the company is building for the Navy, but it has plenty of work these days. Here are some of its projects as covered recently by Newsday's Jim Bernstein:
October 25, 2007
TEAM BIDS FOR B-52 RADAR JAMMER
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s unit in Bethpage said yesterday it has teamed with Boeing Co. to devise new radar-jamming capabilities for the Air Force's venerable B-52H bomber airplane.
The companies said in a joint news release that the Air Force is "examining its airborne electronic attack needs" but has not yet asked aerospace companies to submit proposals.
If the Air Force proceeds with the project and the Northrop Grumman-Boeing team is selected for the job, the work would be done at Northrop Grumman's facility in Bethpage and at a Boeing facility in Wichita, Kan., the companies said.
About 2,500 people work in Bethpage for Northrop Grumman , Long Island's largest defense contractor. The facility is primarily engaged in designing electronic systems for Navy aircraft.
Boeing and Northrop Grumman did not say how much a contract to do electronic-jamming work on the B-52H could be worth.
The B-52 has been flying for more than half a century and has been upgraded repeatedly.
Also yesterday, Northrop Grumman issued third-quarter financial results, saying profits rose 62 percent, primarily because the company's shipyards in the Gulf Coast have recovered from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.
The Los Angeles-based company said it earned $489 million in the quarter, up from $302 million in the same period last year.
Sales in the quarter were up 6.7 percent, to $7.93 billion. On a per-share basis, Northrop Grumman earned $1.41, up from 86 cents.
The unit in Bethpage is a part of Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Division. The company said that sales in aerospace declined slightly in the quarter from the prior year, mostly due to lower volume for the Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye radar patrol plane.
The lower volume is the result of a transition phase. The company is still gearing up to manufacture the Advanced Hawkeye, which has been in a development stage.
The Bethpage unit makes electronic systems for the Hawkeye; production is at a company facility in Florida.
Northrop Grumman got the green light from the Pentagon in July to begin Advanced Hawkeye production, and the program could be the company's Grumman largest airplane-building venture in decades. The Navy wants 75 of the E-2Ds. If all those are built, the E-2D contract would total about $10 billion over a decade.
Shares of Northrop Grumman closed yesterday at $82.25, up $2.72 for the day. They are up nearly 20 percent this year.
August 8, 2007
GRUMMAN HOPES THE NAVY WILL FLOAT THIS BOAT
Northrop Grumman Corp., the aerospace giant, has helped build a new vehicle. But this one doesn't fly. It floats.
Northrop Grumman's unit in Bethpage and Aluminum Chambered Boats Inc., a designer and manufacturer based in Bellingham, Wash., plan later this week to exhibit to the media a 41-foot boat that they hope will lead them to the forefront of what they think could be a new, global market for small, lightweight, highly maneuverable watercraft able to perform many tasks including patrolling coastlines for terrorists.
"In five months, we completed this boat, starting with a handshake," Larry Wieber, founder and chief executive of ACB, said yesterday, describing the work done by his company and Northrop Grumman's electronic warfare unit.
Wieber established the privately held, 120-employee ACB about a decade ago, and the company has built 400 boats, about half for the U.S. military.
Wieber said the boat was built to fill a new need the Navy has for a fleet of small craft to
patrol shorelines, transport cargo and troops, and eavesdrop electronically. ACB built the boat, which weighs about 18,000 pounds and can travel at about 44 knots, and Northrop Grumman designed and manufactured its electronic navigation, sensors and other systems, said Joe Wilkers, Northrop Grumman's project director.
The Navy has not said how many it might buy and has not provided funding. Northrop Grumman and ACB paid for what they call a "concept demonstrator" on their own. Wieber said he believed they are the only companies to have built a demonstration model for such a boat. He noted that aside from the Navy and the Department of Homeland Security, there is a market for such vessels overseas, and Northrop Grumman and ACB plan to tap it. "We think there could be hundreds of thousands of units out there" to be built, Wieber said. He said the boats could cost from $500,000 to several million dollars, depending on equipment.
Boatbuilding is not new for Northrop Grumman, the largest builder of Navy ships. And, decades ago, the former Grumman Corp. built aluminum canoes in upstate Marathon that became fixtures at summer camps and rental sites. The company also built yachts under the Pearson name. But Grumman focused on its aircraft business and exited boatbuilding in the 1970s.
Building small boats for the Department of Homeland Security may prove a formidable task for a big military contractor such as Northrop Grumman , said Paul Nisbet, who follows aerospace for JSA Research Inc. in Newport, R.I. Homeland Security contracts have proved more valuable to first responders than to larger companies, Nisbet said.
Wieber said he took a liking to boats as a lifeguard in the 1960s in Idaho. "Guess what kind of boats we had?" he said. "We had Grumman canoes. I was a young kid with a job on the waterfront. It doesn't get much better than that."
--Noel Rubinton