Litton Industries

Litton Industries, a Woodland Hills defense contractor, was awarded a five-year, $11-million contract from the U.S. Navy's Sea Systems Command. The work will be done by PRC Inc., a Litton division, with the Navy's Virginia-based combat systems engineering division.

Roy L. Ash, a co-founder and former president of Litton Industries who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget in the 1970s during the Nixon and Ford administrations, has died. He was 93. Ash, who had Parkinson's disease, died Dec. 14 at his home in Los Angeles, said his wife, Lila. A Los Angeles native, Ash was chief financial officer of Hughes Aircraft Co. in Culver City before partnering with former Hughes colleague Charles B. "Tex" Thornton in 1953 in a new company that soon led to the acquisition of a small microwave tube firm owned by Charles Litton in the Bay Area community of San Carlos.

Litton Industries has been awarded a $138.6-million contract by the U.S. Navy's Sea Systems Command. The five-year contract calls for the manufacture and design of equipment for engineering control systems and bridge systems to be installed on Navy cruisers. The contract calls for four systems, but there are options for 22 more systems. The work on the contract is expected to be completed by December 2003. Work on this Navy project will be done in Northridge; San Diego; Charlottesville, Va.

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s second-quarter profit fell 35%, though sales almost doubled with the acquisition of shipbuilder Litton Industries Inc., because of declining returns from pension-fund investing. Net income at Northrop, the No. 4 U.S. defense contractor, dropped to $114 million, or $1.28 a share, from $175 million, or $2.50, a year earlier. Sales rose to $3.7 billion from $1.9 billion, mostly because of the Litton acquisition.

Litton Industries Inc., Woodland Hills, announced it has purchased all of the outstanding stock of TEC Electrical Components Group of Middlesex, England, for an undisclosed sum. The company manufactures and supplies electrical connectors primarily to the military and aerospace industries. TEC will become part of Litton's Electronic Components & Materials Group.

Litton Industries created a new business group based in Agoura Hills to oversee three existing divisions. The new command, control and communications systems group consists of the data systems division in Van Nuys, a maker of battlefield communications devices; the data command division in Agoura Hills, which makes air defense systems, and Litton Computer Services in Mountain View, Calif. Richard D.

Beverly Hills-based Litton said it has agreed to acquire Warren, Mich.-based Lamb Technicon for more than $100 million in stock. Lamb, which is privately held, is a leading supplier of manufacturing systems for the domestic and international automotive industry, which is the largest market for advanced-automation systems. The primary products of Lamb, which had revenue of $350 million in 1986, are machining systems for producing powertrain components and auto body welding assembly systems.

Avondale Industries Inc., a Louisiana-based builder of military and commercial ships, said Tuesday its board of directors has approved beginning talks with Woodland Hills-based Litton Industries Inc. regarding Litton's $38-per-share cash offer for Avondale. In January, Newport News Shipbuilding, which makes nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for the U.S. Navy, announced plans to buy Avondale in a stock transaction then valued at $470 million.

Defense contractor Litton Industries Inc. said Tuesday that its proposed merger with Avondale Industries Inc. has won early approval from federal antitrust regulators, allowing the deal to be put to a vote by Avondale shareholders. Woodland Hills-based Litton also said it is forming a unit that will encompass all of its shipbuilding operations, including Avondale's operations when the merger is completed.

Federal agents seized thousands of records from the headquarters of defense contractor Litton Industries on Wednesday as part of a criminal investigation into allegations of fraudulent billing on government contracts, authorities said. About 40 investigators from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI and the Air Force descended on the Canoga Avenue complex about 8 a.m.

Northrop Grumman Corp. has been one of the more active players in the defense industry's consolidation since the early 1990s, buying 12 companies, including aircraft maker Grumman for $2.1 billion and Westinghouse Electric Co.'s defense electronics business for $2.9 billion.

The European Union Commission gave antitrust clearance to Northrop Grumman Corp.'s purchase of Litton Industries Inc., a deal that could create one of the largest defense contractors in the U.S. and strengthen Southern California's position as a dominant player in military electronics. "To a large extent, the businesses of Northrop and Litton are complementary and the overlaps between their activities are very limited," the commission said. Northrop, the fifth-largest U.S.

The Navy said it has awarded a $105.5-million contract to Ingalls Shipbuilding Inc., a unit of Woodland Hills-based Litton Industries, to repair the Navy destroyer Cole, damaged in a terrorist attack. Ingalls said it would take about a year to return the Cole to duty.

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s bid to acquire cross-town rival Litton Industries Inc. stunned Wall Street and aerospace insiders who were left wondering Friday how such a blockbuster deal escaped notice and even rumors. If not outright leaks, at least some kind of speculation often precedes such deals. But there was none for Northrop and Litton. "There was no inkling at all," said Jon B.

Northrop Grumman's proposed acquisition of Litton Industries would boost Southern California by giving the region a powerhouse in defense contracting once again, analysts said Thursday. Northrop, already a leader in defense electronics, would become a prime contractor in modern warfare by acquiring Litton's shipbuilding operations in Mississippi and Louisiana.

http://www.lmasc.com: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. News, gallery of planes with histories and specifications and a fun educational site for kids. http://www.boeing.com/space/rdyne: Rocketdyne. News, archive of in-house Threshold magazine, facts about rockets made easy, historical milestones, careers and more. http://www.litton.com: Litton Industries. News, investor relations, products and services and employment. http://www.hawker.com: Hawker Pacific Aerospace.

When Litton Industries sells a 17-acre office campus in Agoura Hills that it's now marketing to prospective buyers, it will mark the latest example of a phenomenon that would have seemed unlikely in the heyday of San Fernando Valley's aerospace industry. Throughout the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, 1,000 acres or more of former aerospace property has been converted, or soon will be, to other uses--primarily offices, warehouses and retail stores.

When Litton Industries sells a 17-acre office campus in Agoura Hills that it's now marketing to prospective buyers, it will mark the latest example of a phenomenon that would have seemed unlikely in the heyday of San Fernando Valley's aerospace industry. Throughout the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, 1,000 acres or more of former aerospace property has been converted, or soon will be, to other uses--primarily offices, warehouses and retail stores.