Northrop Grumman Corp

* Northrop Grumman Corp. got a $170-million award from the Air Force to extend its work developing a ground-surveillance aircraft that can track cruise missiles.

Northrop Grumman Corp., the last big-name aerospace company headquartered in Southern California, is headed out of town this week. The nation's second-largest military contractor, founded in 1939 by visionary aircraft designer Jack Northrop, is officially moving its main office to Falls Church, Va., on Monday. It is a milestone for the corporation that along the way absorbed big names like TRW Inc., Litton Industries Inc., Westinghouse Electronic Systems and Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical.

AlliedSignal to Buy Northrop Grumman Unit: The Morristown, N.J.-based aerospace, automotive and chemicals company said its aerospace unit agreed to buy Northrop Grumman Corp.'s precision products unit. The precision products business, based in Norwood, Mass., makes instruments and systems for military and space use. It had sales of about $56 million in 1994.

Two of the nation's largest aerospace companies reported rising profits in the first quarter despite a slip in revenue. Boeing Co. said its earnings climbed 13% and Northrop Grumman Corp. posted a 21% jump in profit. Northrop and Boeing are among the largest private employers in the state. Northrop has about 30,000 employees in California and Boeing has about 22,000. Each operates a large military-related business in Southern California. Northrop said Wednesday that it earned $496 million, or $1.67 a share, in the quarter, up from $410 million, or $1.34, a year earlier.

Northrop Grumman Corp. created a new business unit to provide logistic and support services to the U.S. government including operating military bases and maintaining military aircrafts. The new unit, Northrop Grumman Technical Services, will be headquartered in Washington, D.C., and consolidates work that had been separately performed by Northrop's four main business units. About 10,000 people will work in the new unit, which will be headed by James L.

Century City-based Northrop Grumman Corp. and Chicago-based Boeing Co. have joined the list of major companies being sued for allegedly allowing their employees to be overcharged in their 401(k) retirement plans. The suits filed by St. Louis attorney Jerome J. Schlichter last month allege that the employers broke federal law by failing to ensure their workers are charged reasonable fees for management of the plans. Previously named in the suits were Lockheed Martin Corp., General Dynamics Corp.

Northrop Grumman Corp. completed the $843-million sale of its commercial aircraft structures business to Carlyle Group. The unit, with about 6,000 employees, builds fuselages for the Boeing 747 and other Boeing passenger jets at plants in California, Texas, Georgia and Florida, Century City-based Northrop said in a news release. In addition to the cash payment, Carlyle Group will assume about $400 million in unfunded retirement benefits.

Two employees of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems died in separate incidents at the company's New Orleans-area yard, authorities said. A 50-year-old employee in the company's insulation department was found unconscious Monday aboard a ship, according to a statement released by the company. Later that day, a piece of equipment fell on an employee, crushing him, a spokesman for the Jefferson Parish sheriff said. Both men were pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s B-2 bomber has been declared ready for combat by the Air Force. "This is the most up-to-date heavy bomber flying in the world today," said Kenneth Bacon, a Pentagon spokesman. Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman has delivered 13 B-2s to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The stealth planes have undergone operational testing to ensure that they are capable of performing up to specifications.

NASA has taken the next small step toward reshaping its future in space travel by awarding five contracts worth as much as $250 million to aerospace companies for researching and developing propulsion systems. Although NASA hasn't laid out how it will use such technology, officials from the contract winners -- three of which are based in California -- say they envision their work being used on a broad range of missions: sending research equipment deep into space; building thrust engines for robotic Mars landers; or developing boosters for spacecraft to explore far-flung asteroids.

The multibillion-dollar competition to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force is expected to kick off this week as the Pentagon spells out its latest requirements to replace its aging fleet of Eisenhower-era aircraft. But there are already signs that the competition could be derailed once again. Century City-based Northrop Grumman Corp., one of the two contenders, has threatened to withdraw its bid, accusing the Air Force of writing specifications that favor its rival, Boeing Co. The latest specs for the tankers, which refuel warplanes in flight, are due out this week -- possibly as early as Tuesday.

It didn't take very long for Wesley G. Bush, Northrop Grumman Corp.'s new chief executive, to make his mark. On his very first day on the job, Bush announced that he was uprooting the company's headquarters from Los Angeles -- where it has been since its founding in 1939 -- and relocating it to the Washington, D.C., area. The move, he said, was made to bring the nation's second-largest defense contractor closer to its key customer: the U.S. government. But the timing of the stunning announcement also sent a decisive message to the company's top brass that under Bush's new leadership it would no longer be business as usual, analysts said.

In a blow to Southern California, Northrop Grumman Corp. said it would relocate its headquarters from Los Angeles -- leaving the region that gave birth to the aerospace industry without a single major military contractor based here. The company said it would move its corporate staff to the Washington, D.C., area by summer 2011 to be closer to its key customer, the U.S. government. Northrop's announcement was seen as a bitter pill for the much-battered regional economy, which has suffered a series of high-profile corporate defections in recent years.

Even with its decision Monday to move its headquarters out of Los Angeles, Northrop Grumman Corp. will remain one of Southern California's biggest private employers, with about 27,000 people on its payroll locally. The aerospace giant's major facilities here include robotic-aircraft units in Rancho Bernardo and Palmdale, a satellite division in Redondo Beach and a factory in El Segundo where major components of the F/A-18 fighter jet are built. Northrop also operates a number of classified research and development centers for the government in various undisclosed locations.

Northrop Grumman Corp. has stepped up its threat to pull out of a $35-billion competition to build aerial refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force. In a letter to the Pentagon's top acquisition official Tuesday, Northrop President Wes Bush said the government's "request for proposal" that outlines requirements for the aircraft favors a bid by its rival, Boeing Co. If the terms are not changed, Northrop might not enter the competition to build 179 tankers, he said. "I must regrettably inform you that, absent a responsive set of changes in the final RFP, Northrop Grumman has determined that it cannot submit a bid," Bush said.

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. on Sunday agreed to sell its government advisory business for $1.65 billion to a group of private equity investors led by General Atlantic and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. The decision to sell TASC Inc. is part of Century City-based Northrop's efforts to comply with a new federal conflict-of-interest law, which regulates companies that advise the government on weapons systems while also building them....

Northrop Grumman Corp. on Wednesday said it posted lower third-quarter profit because of higher pension expenses, but the results surpassed analysts' expectations and the company lifted its profit outlook for the year. In contrast, Boeing Co. said it lost $1.6 billion in the quarter, hurt by growing costs of two troubled plane programs that forced the airplane maker to slash its profit forecast. The world's second-largest commercial plane maker after Europe's Airbus, Boeing has struggled to launch its 787 passenger jet and a revamped version of its classic 747 jumbo jet. Production delays, parts shortages and last-minute fixes have cost the company billions in write-downs along with additional design and manufacturing expenses.