Posted on 01/04/2010 2:32:46 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Northrop Grumman Corp. plans to move its headquarters to the Washington, D.C., area from Los Angeles, a historic departure from the aerospace and defense industry's birthplace in Southern California.
The move will put Northrop's top executives near its biggest military and intelligence customers in the federal government, as well as Congress.
"We are a global security company and when you look at where our largest customer base is located, it's in the Washington, D.C region," said Wesley Bush, Northrop's chief executive officer and president. Mr. Bush took over as chief executive from Ron Sugar on Jan. 1.
The decision follows a broader corporate migration from Southern California—including Hilton Hotels Corp. and SAIC Inc.—that leaves the second-largest city in the U.S. with a slackening grip on coveted corporate headquarters.
After World War II, the aerospace industry blossomed in Southern California, home to year-round flying weather. But since the end of the Cold War, many of the large defense contractors have merged as defense budgets shrank during the 1990s. That has left Northrop as the last remaining large defense contractor in the area.
The new headquarters, which will employ about 300 people, will open by the middle of 2011. Under consideration are sites in Virginia, Maryland or the District of Columbia. Northrop's Los Angeles headquarters houses about 350 workers currently.
The company plans to look hard at the incentives offered by the three areas before choosing a site. "It is primarily economics" that will determine who hosts the company, said Mr. Bush, who made clear that Northrop will still have 30,000 employees, or a quarter of its total staff, in California after the move.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Their space stuff is still done in Space Park (Redondo Beach). They also do some advanced military work there. One thing that struck me about them is that NG abandoned the commercial space communications market. TRW used to build communications satellites. Now the field is limited to Boeing (Hughes), the Europeans and SSL Loral. Maybe OSC.
To work anywhere near Redondo involves either
1) living in a ghastly pit
2) driving for hours
Used to live in an apt there in the mid 70s. and worked in
San Pedro.
It’s like going to court at Versailles. One must be in the presence of the Sun King or one does not exist.
NG has a large manufacturing plant in MD, near BWI. It is stated to be the largest manufacturing facility in MD.
My guess is that N-G will relocate to Virginia, which despite leftward drift lately is still far more friendly to business than California. Even left-leaning Maryland may be greener grass than California by now.
300 out of 30,000. That’s 1 percent. Hardly earth shattering. But smart.
I think that used to be the old Westinghouse facility. They used to build the TPS RADARs there.
Chantilly, Virginia. Up the street from the NRO.
You are right. It is the old Westinghouse plant.
Northrop Grumman builds radars there too.
NG has gotten into the shipbuilding business in the last decade or so. Most of it is located a couple of hundred miles down the interstate from DC in Newport News....18,000 employees building and refueling nuclear carriers and submarines. They’re the largest private employer in the state.
Northrop Grumman built a National Workforce Center at Johnstown. They have a number of them across the country. I selected a few states at their web site and they had job openings everywhere I happened to click, except Montana and apparently they do have operations in that state. It’s a big, big company.
And the name Ironworks was not just an idle title....the fighter planes et al would absorb a multitude of enemy ordnance and land back on the carriers...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.