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Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene plunged a House Homeland Security Committee hearing into chaos Wednesday by accusing Rep. Eric Swalwell of having a “sexual relationship with a Chinese spy” — leading Democrats to unsuccessfully demand that the remark be purged from the record. Greene (R-Ga.) made the comment moments after Swalwell accused her of “anti-police rhetoric” and showed a print-out of a tweet she wrote promoting “Defund the FBI” merchandise in response to purported bureau bias. “That was quite entertaining from someone that had a sexual relationship with a Chinese spy — and everyone knows it,” Greene shot back, referring...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced it has cleared Northrop Grumman's $7.8 billion purchase of defense and space contractor Orbital ATK. Orbital ATK will become Northrop Grumman's fourth business sector, named Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. The other three are Aerospace Systems, Mission Systems and Technology Services. With the addition, Northrop Grumman's sales for 2018 should reach $30 billion. Blake Larson will serve as corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. As a condition for the approval of the merger, the company will have to supply solid rocket motors "on a non-discriminatory basis under specified circumstances,"...

Northrop Grumman has been awarded a USD39.3 million contract related to the development of a laser-based self-defence system for the US Air Force (USAF). The contract, which was awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) on 23 August, is for the Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) Turret Research in Aero-Effects (STRAFE) programme. Northrop Grumman will develop and deliver an advanced beam control system for integration as part of a complete laser weapons system into a tactical pod for USAF fighter aircraft.

WASHINGTON – Though the Homeland Security Department has not terminated a high-ranking department official accused of resume fraud, sources say she's been denied the security clearance she needs to perform her job. Laura Callahan, the department's deputy chief information officer, was placed on paid leave in June while officials investigate her academic credentials. The advanced degrees she lists on her resume are from a diploma mill. Callahan's assistant, Jim Shepard, says she is still out on leave and has not been fired. However, sources say she was denied Top Secret clearance and is appealing the decision. Callahan's lawyer did not...

Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp said they will continue their protest against the Air Force's selection of Northrop Grumman Corp to build a new long-range strike bomber, calling that process "irreparably flawed".

When Hornets Growl The new, supersonic face of e-warfare. By D.C. Agle Air & Space Magazine, March 01, 2011 No soft underbelly here: The EA-18G Growler hauls missiles, fuel tanks, and electronic warfare pods. Ted Carlson/Fotodynamics Two hours north of Seattle, Washington, at the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the entrance to Puget Sound is guarded by a citadel dedicated to the aerial mastery and manipulation of one of the universe’s fundamental particles—the electron. The site, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, was originally envisioned as little more than a waypoint for patrol aircraft scanning the Sound...

Northrop Grumman has delivered its 400th fuselage section for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the U.S. Navy's combat-proven multi-role strike fighter. The fuselage "shipset," measuring nearly 30 feet long and 18 feet high, consists of the aircraft's center and aft fuselage sections, twin vertical tails and all associated subsystems. It was shipped earlier this month to The Boeing Company's F/A-18 production center in St. Louis, Mo., for final assembly and delivery to the Navy. As principal F/A-18E/F subcontractor to Boeing, Northrop Grumman is responsible for design and production of the entire center and aft fuselage as well as subsystems integration and...

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...

“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...

Global defense firm Northrop Grumman Corp. will compete against the Boeing Co. for a multi-billion-dollar Air Force contract that could bring thousands of jobs to San Diego during several decades. ...Northrop is proposing a KC-30 Advanced Multi-Role Tanker Transport for air refueling, and cargo and passenger transport that is based on the A330 commercial aircraft made of lightweight composites.

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...

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...

Northrop officials say destroyer program changes ahead PASCAGOULA, Miss.—A Northrop Grumman Ships Systems official says changes in the Navy's shipbuilding program could force the defense giant into direct competition with Bath Iron Works. Ship Systems President Phil Dur, speaking Tuesday to a business group in Pascagoula, said depending on how the Navy changes its DD(X) destroyer program, Northrop could go from building three of the next generation warships to building all or none. Ship Systems is scheduled to build the first three ships of the cutting-edge class in Pascagoula, with the Bath, Maine, shipyard building two. Recent changes in the...

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...

She favours Boeing on Air Force contracts for hiring daughter and daughter's boyfriend and, later, to protect daughter, who got a poor performance reviewWhile overseeing contracts, she meet Boeing secretly for $422,000 job there HE had long insisted that her work decisions were strictly professional. Then, she failed a lie-detector test. Finally, Darleen Druyun, the No 2 weapons buyer for the US Air Force, admitted that her weapons-buying decisions were influenced by a desire to curry Boeing's favour for herself and her family. The career of Druyun, once the most powerful woman in the Air Force, is over. Last...

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...

LOS ANGELES -- In a bid to keep a European-designed helicopter from becoming the next Marine One transport for the president, United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX - News)'s Sikorsky Aircraft Co. said it will rely on U.S. companies to build its latest version of the chopper, pulling work from several international suppliers. Sikorsky, whose helicopters have carried all U.S. presidents since Dwight Eisenhower, will replace partners in China, Taiwan, Spain, Japan and Brazil on this particular version of its new S-92 helicopter. The international partners will continue to build large portions of the civilian version of the helicopter, Sikorsky said. Since...

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...

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...