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Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced Wednesday that Northrop Grumman and Boeing will have to submit revised proposals for the Air Force’s highly contested aerial refueling tanker program. The Pentagon chief's decision comes after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing's protest of the Air Force's decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman and EADS North America, the parent company of Boeing rival Airbus. “I have concluded that the contract cannot be awarded,” Gates said at a Pentagon news conference. Northrop Grumman won the heated competition on Feb. 29, but is currently under a stop-work order. The decision means...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force told Boeing Co (NYSE:BA - News) it had fully met a key requirement in competing for a $35 billion aerial refueling program but then changed its evaluation without telling the company, government auditors said on Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an extended explanation of its decision last week to uphold Boeing's protest against the contract award to Northrop Grumman

WASHINGTON: John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is fending off charges that he pushed the U.S. Air Force into a faulty $35 billion deal for midair refueling planes. Democrats weighed in after the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, found last week that the air force had made "significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition" between Boeing and a combination of Northrop Grumman and European Aerospace & Defense Systems, or EADS, which was awarded the contract. The Democratic National Committee accused McCain of "mimicking" EADS, the corporate parent of Airbus,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. auditors urged the Air Force Wednesday to rerun its marathon, $35 billion competition for refueling aircraft, upholding a protest by losing bidder Boeing Co (BA.N). The Government Accountability Office found the Air Force made "a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between" Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N). "We therefore sustained Boeing's protest," Michael Golden, head of the a GAO bid protest unit, said in a statement. Northrop was teamed with EADS, parent of rival passenger-jet maker Airbus. EADS (EAD.PA) had no immediate comment. --snip-- The...

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates summarily fired the top civilian and military Air Force officials last week, the reason he gave was a grave failure of leadership with respect to that service’s nuclear missions. The low priority assigned by the Pentagon to its nuclear stewardship responsibilities is systemic and acute. Consequently, this act of accountability is both warranted and a needed wake-up call to all the armed forces. As it happens, there is another ground on which the dismissal of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne could be justified. He was specifically brought in to clean up Air Force procurement, but...

Northrop Grumman official said that the construction of a new Air Force tanker in Mobile, Ala., could have an economic impact in south Mississippi of more than $12 million annually. Leroy Barnidge, vice president for state and local government relations in Melbourne, Fla., where Northrop's tanker program headquarters is located, spoke Wednesday to a Pascagoula civic club. Northrop-EADS plans an aircraft assembly center in Mobile estimated to cost $600 million and create more than 1,000 jobs. If the Northrop and EADS North America's joint tanker contract survives a protest by rival Boeing Co., Barnidge said a couple of hundred new...

A Navy deal for an unmanned plane is the latest won by a unit of the defense contractor, the region's second-largest private employer.With a bulbous head and plank-like wings, the aircraft resembles a lumbering whale. And its seven-word, 49-letter name -- Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aerial System -- is a whopper. But the award last month of a Navy contract to build the hulking, robotic patrol plane, nicknamed BAMS, could not have come at a better time for Northrop Grumman Corp. and, in particular, its military aircraft business headquartered in El Segundo. Flying highThe contract, potentially worth nearly $4...

Not all quite on the tankern front. “US GAO begins hearing on Northrop/EADS tanker deal�http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0539240420080505 “A GAO spokesman confirmed the start of the hearing, but gave no details. The congressional agency, which reviews contract disputes, is due to rule on the case by June 19. The hearing includes lawyers from Boeing, Northrop, and the Air Force, with three GAO officials hearing the various arguments, according to three sources familiar with the case, who said it could last all week. “This hearing will go on for days and days,� said one of the sources, who asked not to be named. “Each...

WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp won a $1.16 billion contract to modify its high-altitude unmanned Global Hawk surveillance plane into a new maritime patrol aircraft, the Navy said on Tuesday. Northrop beat out Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co to win the deal, which runs through September 2014 and covers three unmanned test planes and an option for three low-rate initial production planes. The Navy plans to buy 68 Global Hawks under the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program over the coming years, in a deal Navy officials said would be worth at least $3.74 billion,...

WASHINGTON - Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years. Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman. EADS is the parent company of Airbus, which teamed up with U.S.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The European refueling tanker that won a $35 billion Pentagon contract last week "was clearly a better performer" than its U.S. rival, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told lawmakers Wednesday. Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Wynne said the plane offered by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., was determined to be less expensive and less risky than the plane offered by Chicago-based Boeing Co. The planes were judged on nine key criteria, he said, and "across the spectrum, all evaluated, the Northrop Grumman airplane was clearly a...

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - Details emerged on Monday about how dramatically Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and its European partner beat Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to win a $35 billion tanker aircraft competition, as furious Boeing supporters called the contract "a multibillion dollar gift to Europe." "This was not a close outcome in any sense of the term," defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute told Reuters, describing how Boeing failed to beat Northrop in any of the key criteria for the aerial refueling contract. "Northrop won decisively and completely," said Thompson, who has...

“Youths” in the suburbs of Paris are escalating their intifada against French society, ambushing and firing on police. PARIS: Dozens of hooded attackers fired buckshot and nails at police this weekend, wounding four officers, France’s interior minister said. Michele Alliot-Marie called the Sunday afternoon attack an “ambush,” saying that about 30 people, some of them armed, were waiting for the officers in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny. The officers were responding to a call about vandalism at a local bakery. Three officers were hit in face with buckshot; another was hit in the leg with buckshot and nails and...

Northrop Grumman Corp. and the maker of Airbus planes won a multibillion-dollar Air Force contract to build 179 tankers used to refuel military aircraft mid-flight, a congressional staffer familiar with the award said Friday. The staffer, who learned of the award from a Northrop Grumman employee, spoke on condition of anonymity. The selection of Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. comes as a surprise to Wall Street and major blow to Boeing Co.

The Air Force snubbed longtime partner Boeing and awarded a lucrative contract to Northrop and EADS, the European maker of the Airbus, to build a fleet of refueling aircraft. The decision stunned Boeing and elected officials in the Northwest, who immediately objected to the decision to reject the all-American option. However, officials claim that Boeing’s submission simply didn’t measure up — literally: Air Force officials offered few details about why they choose the Northrop-EADS team over Boeing since they have yet to debrief the two companies. But Air Force Gen. Arthur Lichte said the larger size was key. “More passengers,...

PALMDALE - Six years after the contract was first awarded, Northrop Grumman Corp. employees Friday marked another milestone along the path to fielding the nation's next fighter, the F-35 Lightning II. The center fuselage for the first Air Force near-production version of the fighter was unveiled Friday at the company's Palmdale Manufacturing Center. The fuselage incorporates design changes made during development to decrease weight in the final fighter. "This is starting a new phase for what will be a very unique fighter capability," said Air Force Maj. Gen. C.R. Davis, program executive officer for the F-35. The latest - and...

PALMDALE - The Navy has awarded a $635.8 million contract to Northrop Grumman Corp. to build a revolutionary pilotless combat plane at the company's facility at Air Force Plant 42. The plane, called the X-47B, will be designed to fly from aircraft carriers and carry out bombing missions and perform extended surveillance. It will use stealth technology designed to make it hard to spot on radar. The six-year contract is part of a Navy program, known as the Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration, or UCAS-D, to establish the capability of such a robot plane. Northrop Grumman tested the smaller...

PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman employees have begun work on a $171 million contract to develop and demonstrate a new extremely high frequency satellite communications system that eventually would enable B-2 stealth bombers to send and receive battlefield information up to 100 times faster than now. Expected to last more than five years and to be done in three phases, the first system design and development phase consists primarily of engineering work that will be based in Palmdale, with flight testing likely to be at Edwards Air Force Base\. "This SDD contract provides significant momentum for the work Northrop Grumman and...

PALMDALE - The Department of Homeland Security plans to evaluate unmanned, high-altitude vehicles as a platform for a counter-missile defense system for commercial airliners in answer to the threat of shoulder-fired missiles being used to attack aircraft as they take off or land. While seeking bids for development of such a system, the department plans to conduct trials using the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Global Hawk and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems' Predator B aircraft. Both are built and tested in the Antelope Valley; Global Hawk at Northrop's facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale and Predator B at General Atomics'...

Northrop Grumman Corp. will design a supersonic experimental aircraft that employs a wing that varies position for most efficient flight performance under a $10.3 million contract from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The oblique flying wing program aims to design and conduct the first-ever flight tests of a tailless, supersonic, variable sweep oblique flying wing... In an oblique wing aircraft, one wing of the aircraft is swept forward and the other backward in an asymetrical configuration, which varies with flight speed. The wing, also known as a "scissors wing," pivots over a center point, shifting angle as the...

The Pentagon's plans for developing and eventually fielding unmanned aircraft capable of delivering munitions in high-risk battle scenarios once again are undergoing a structural change. What once was known as the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems, or J-UCAS, program is shifting from a joint Air Force and Navy program to one led solely by the Navy. The program is intended to develop and test the technologies necessary to field fleets of unmanned aircraft capable of operating on their own to attack and shut down enemy air defenses. Created in 2003, the original program merged the separate efforts of the Air...

WASHINGTON – Northrop Grumman and Boeing unveiled a back-to-the-future concept for the next generation of space exploration vehicles Wednesday, displaying an Apollo-like capsule and support module as their offering in the competition for a system to take humans back to the moon and later to Mars. The two aerospace giants are teamed in a bid for NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle program, potentially a $100 billion project that is intended to replace the troubled Space Shuttle for servicing the International Space Station by 2012 and to carry astronauts to the moon by 2018. The Northrop-Boeing team and Lockheed Martin each received...

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (NNS) -- The beveling of a 15-ton metal plate kicked off advance construction of the newest class of aircraft carrier, the CVN 21 project, Aug. 11 at Northrop Grumman Newport News' shipyards in Virginia. The new carrier is designed to modernize the “flat tops” for the 21st century. Advance construction will take an estimated two years before construction can begin on the actual ship itself. This gives technicians and engineers the time needed to test and design the ship, and all the new technologies that will be put into the vessel. “We’re going to kind of mark...

Even as NASA prepares to return to space with the space shuttle, efforts are under way to ensure the agency's next manned spacecraft will share the same California birthplace. Each of the five space shuttle orbiters and one test vehicle were built at the Rockwell International - now The Boeing Co. - facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. Now, NASA has awarded contracts to two teams in a competition to develop and build a replacement spacecraft, the crew exploration vehicle. Both teams, one headed by Lockheed Martin and the other a joint project of Northrop Grumman Corp. and...

Tracking the MTHEL Laser By Sam Jaffe May 9, 2005 After more than ten years and several billion dollars of development, one of the most promising experimental weapons in the history of the Pentagon seemed to have fired its last shot. "The Army has no funding for MTHEL," says Lt.Col. Jeff Souder, the project manager of directed energy applications program at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) was a program to develop a defensive laser weapon powered by the combustion of highly volatile chemicals that shoots down artillery projectiles. They system works by...

USS San Antonio (LPD 17) on Sea Trials in the Gulf of Mexico The first ship of class, the USS San Antonio (LPD 17) set sale into the Gulf of Mexico on April 29, 2005, to undergo sea trials and returned on May 3, 2005. This is the first picture available of her sailing and comes from the Northup Grumman site. She represents our latest generation of medium sized (as compared to the much larger Wasp LHD class) Amphibious Assault ships for the 21st century. Her lift capabilities, her self defense capabilities, and her electronic, sensors, maintenance and battle...

The Pentagon's internal watchdog has begun investigating two additional contracts handled by convicted former Air Force official Darleen Druyun and could add three more deals to its growing list of possibly tainted procurements, the Pentagon said on Monday. Druyun is serving a nine-month prison term for violating federal conflict-of-interest laws by negotiating a $250,000-a-year job with Boeing Co. while still overseeing its business with the Air Force. She also admitted steering contracts to Boeing as far back as 2000. "In the course of our review, in an effort to be as thorough as possible, we decided to take a look...

WASHINGTON - Business is soaring for the defense companies that keep the Valley's economy aloft. But serious challenges on the horizon - among them potential budget cuts and California's anti-business climate - could send The Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. into a tailspin, the firms report. Members of the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, or AVBOT, visited the Washington offices of the big three contractors Monday as part of the regional economic organization's annual lobbying visit to the nation's capital. AVBOT reps received updates on the aerospace companies' ongoing work at Palmdale's Air Force Plant...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) would bear the brunt of proposed cuts in U.S. weapons purchases totaling $30 billion over the next six years, according to the summary from a Pentagon budget document made available to Reuters Monday. Nearly $18 billion would be slashed from programs run by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's biggest supplier, according to a trade publication, InsideDefense.com, the first to report details of the plan. The cuts were spelled out in a so-called Program Budget Decision signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul...

After their tiny plane crashed deep in the jungles of southern Colombia, three American civilians on a mission to search for cocaine labs, drug planes and, occasionally, guerrilla units were taken hostage by Marxist rebels. A year later, the men's families say the captives have been all but forgotten. Some say that is the way American officials and the men's employers want it to be. The three Americans — Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes — worked cloaked in secrecy for two subsidiaries of Northrop Grumman, the huge military contractor, in an arrangement used increasingly by the United States...

PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman Corp. will continue to upgrade the B-2 stealth bomber radar system, courtesy of a $388 million contract awarded by the Air Force for the second phase of the multi-year modernization program. The program, based at Northrop's facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, will provide the nation's fleet of B-2 bombers with sophisticated new radar systems. The B-2 work force in Palmdale, which numbers between 60 and 70 employees, is not expected to see an increase with this contract, said Northrop spokesman Jim Hart. The team may grow slightly in future years as flight testing...

Work on the ship, known as CVN-21, will begin in 2007 with delivery expected in 2014. The ship will have fewer sailors than current carriers and will be equipped with a new type of nuclear reactor. The prime contractor on the deal is the company's Newport News shipbuilding unit.

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. Welcome to "Warrior Wednesday" Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different...

Beginning this weekend, aircraft buffs will be able to stroll up to and touch about half dozen historic aircraft at the city's newest public facility, the Heritage Airpark. The airpark, at 25th Street East and Avenue P, is a memorial to the aircraft designed, built and tested at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 since the facility was established in 1951. The airpark is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays beginning Jan. 17. A formal ceremony marking the opening of the facility will be held in March, noted Mayor Jim Ledford. Meanwhile, volunteers will continue to prepare...

Navy to Christen New Guided-Missile Destroyer Halsey The newest Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer, Halsey (DDG 97) will be christened on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004, during a 10 a.m. CST ceremony at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Miss. Adm. William J. Fallon, commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, will deliver the ceremony’s principal address in concert with Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi. Heidi Cook Halsey, Anne Halsey Smith, and Alice “Missy” Spruance Talbot will serve as sponsors of the ship named for their grandfather. In the time-honored Navy tradition, they will break the bottle of champagne across the bow to...

The future of supersonic flight is taking shape in the very skies where the sonic boom first signaled the conquest of the sound barrier. This time, however, researchers hope to make a much quieter mark on history. The Shaped Sonic Boom Experiment uses a specially modified F-5E Tiger fighter jet to show that aircraft may be shaped so as to lessen the force of the shock wave created as it goes supersonic, thus producing a quieter sonic boom. "It is the forerunner of the future of supersonic flight," said Northrop Grumman chief test pilot Roy Martin, who piloted the modified...

Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Space Systems Co. will team with Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems Sector to compete for full-scale development of NASA's orbital space plane. The orbital space plane program is planned as a next-generation crew rescue and transport system for the international space station. The space plane, which may include multiple vehicles, will enable a larger permanent crew to occupy the orbiting research facility, increasing science and research capabilities in space. Details of the agreement between Lockheed and Northrop, announced Monday, will be worked out in the next 90 days, Northrop Grumman spokesman Brooks McKinney said. If any of the...

The field of likely bidders to build the Orbital Space Plane is about to shrink from three to two, according to industry sources. Northrop Grumman is dropping plans to bid for the Orbital Space Plane prime contract and has entered discussions with Lockheed Martin Corp. about a teaming arrangement on the program, industry sources said. Such a move essentially would pit the Lockheed Martin-Northrop Grumman team against Boeing Co. for the multibillion-dollar contract. What this would mean for Northrop Grumman’s current Orbital Space Plane partner, Orbital Sciences Corp., is not immediately clear. Orbital Sciences spokesman Barron Beneski could not be...

Northrop Grumman has disclosed a new directed-energy laser weapon system that it has conceived to defeat small, supersonic missiles targeted at aircraft landing at and taking off from military airfields and civilian airports. The Hazardous Ordnance Engagement Toolkit (HORNET) is an outgrowth of the company's continued work on the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) system for Israel and the US. Like MTHEL, the HORNET would be based on a megawatt-class deuterium-fluoride chemical laser that can shoot a lethal energy beam at the speed of light at a target, said Pat Caruana, vice president of Missile Defense in Northrop Grumman's...

The U.S. budget deficit doesn't foreshadow a decrease in defense spending, Northrop Grumman Corp. Chief Executive Ron Sugar said in an interview on Fox News on Monday. "It's interesting that only a (small) percent of our gross national product is devoted to defense, but nothing can be more important, in my judgment, than the obligation of a nation to defend its people," Sugar said. "Given the threat is real, I think the resources are going to have to be there." Sugar also told Fox News the threat of a ballistic missile attack on the U.S. is "imminent," and that the...

Faced with over $600 million in debt liabilities and a bleak market outlook for its still-unfinished reusable rocket, Kistler Aerospace Corp. filed to reorganize July 15 under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Based in Kirkland, Wash., the private company is developing the K-1 reusable launch vehicle with intentions to launch commercial and government payloads into low Earth orbit, initially from the Woomera Spaceport in Australia, and later the Nevada Test Site. Papers were filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, a move that will "facilitate Kistler’s restructuring, which is designed to...

Ship to Be Built From Trade Center Steel Sat Dec 28, 2002, 8:29 PM ET By JOEL STASHENKO, Associated Press Writer ALBANY, N.Y. - Steel salvaged from the wreckage of the World Trade Center was headed to a Mississippi shipyard Saturday for use in the USS New York, a warship named in honor of those who perished in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was the Navy's idea to incorporate the steel into the vessel, said Capt. Kevin Wensing, a Navy public affairs officer in Washington. He said the steel was removed Friday from the New York landfill that holds...

MORE EXPLORE FEATURES Lost in Space Problems with the space shuttle and the International Space Station have knocked NASA off its moorings By Mark Alpert Image: NASAALBATROSS? The International Space Station. Critics of human spaceflight have a saying: "If God had wanted people to go into space, He would’ve given them more money." This reworked adage has never seemed more appropriate than during the recent battles in Washington, D.C., over the future of the space shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). Both programs are facing severe cutbacks as NASA’s new administrator, Sean O’Keefe, tries to bring order to...

U.S. Navy Selects Northrop Grumman-Led Gold Team For DD(X) System Design Contract $2.9 Billion, Four-Year Program Will Produce Designs for Next-Generation, Transformational Surface Combatants LOS ANGELES, April 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC - news) announced today that the U.S. Navy has selected a team led by the company to complete the system design for the Navy's advanced, 21st century surface combatant, DD(X). Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems sector will lead the system design, engineering prototype development and testing of the DD(X) System under a $265 million contract awarded today by the Navy. The team includes Raytheon Company (NYSE:...