Northrop Grumman Corp

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.

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.

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., the third-largest U.S. defense contractor, said Chief Financial Officer Charles Noski was leaving the company and would be replaced by Wesley Bush, effective March 15. Bush, 43, is president of the company's space technology business, according to Century City-based Northrop. The defense contractor acquired the business in 2002 from TRW Inc., where Bush had worked since 1987.

Ronald Sugar, Northrop Grumman Corp.'s president and chief operating officer, Wednesday was named to succeed Kent Kresa as the big defense contractor's chief executive. The company also disclosed plans to add 2,000 or more jobs to its workforce in Southern California over the next few years, where it's already one of the largest employers. Sugar, 54, will become CEO of the Century City-based concern April 1 and will remain president.

Northrop Grumman Corp. will expand its headquarters in Century City as part of a $100-million agreement that is one of the largest leases of the year in Los Angeles County. The global aerospace and defense company recently signed a lease renewal that will expand its 131,140 square feet to 193,129 square feet in Northrop Grumman Plaza II at 1840 Century Park E.

Its merger plans with Lockheed Martin Corp. now history, Northrop Grumman Corp. will probably seek buyout candidates itself to get bigger, analysts said Thursday. But the Los Angeles-based aerospace concern could also compete effectively without acquisitions, its chief executive said.

Northrop Grumman Corp. said it is combining its Torrance-based Logicon Inc. subsidiary with its Data Systems and Services Division in Herndon, Va., in a consolidation effective immediately. The new unit will be called Logicon Inc. and will be based in Herndon, leaving the fate of the Torrance office and its estimated 60 employees unclear.

Northrop Grumman Corp. donated $20,000 to Loyola Marymount University to establish a minority engineering and science program. The grant will allow the private school to assist students with tutoring, financial aid, counseling and job placement, said Gerald Jakubowski, dean of the College of Science and Engineering. The program will encourage racial and ethnic minorities to study science and engineering--two fields in which they have been historically underrepresented.