Grumman inks $42M Navy deal

BETHPAGE - Northrop Grumman has landed a threeyear contract with the U.S. Navy worth $41.9 million to produce wing sections for its top radar-jamming aircraft, part of an expected resurgence of defense spending, company officials said.

Los Angeles-based Grumman, still the dominant local military

The company, with 2,000 Long Island employees, must deliver the sections by March 2003. The contract has an option for 10 more units with a $31.1 million price tag, said John Vosilla, a Grumman spokesman.

The contract comes amid Grumman predictions that, whether the Democrats or Republicans win the November presidential elections, the U.S. military will need to spend billions upgrading its aircraft fleet in the coming years.

Grumman is in a good position to benefit. In 1998, it won $220 million in contracts, or 48 percent of Long Island's $527 million total, according to Pearl Kamer, chief economist for the Long Island Association. Overall, New York state defense contractors won $2.9 billion in contracts that year, the latest available figures.

"We will be a big player in what ever the military does whether it is upgrading or expanding," Vosilla said. "We are designing military technology the same way we design our 'commercial-off-the-shelf technology' which allows upgrades as needed. This will make Northrop Grumman a big competitor for contracts in the future." Other Island companies, such as Dayton T. Brown and Comtech, are also expected to reap contracts from any military spending increase.

In the latest deal, the wing sections will replace parts on the Prowler that have been stressed and damaged from years of use, Vosilla said. Grumman was the original designer and manufacturer of the plane, used by the Navy and Air Force, and delivered 170 of them from 1970 to 1991.

The Prowler, which electronically jams and disables enemy radar and communication systems allowing U.S. fighters and bombers to focus on their mission objectives, is expected to remain in service until 2015, according to the Navy.

Despite the military downsizing that led to Northrop's acquisition of Grumman in 1994 and the layoff of thousands of Island employees, the military still accounts for more than 95 percent of Grumman's contacts, the company said.

Among its other contracts, Grumman is also working on a $150 million deal awarded in 1998 to design and engineer the new generation of jamming technology for the Prowlers. Some of the upgraded technology will be integrated into the 17 mid wing sections.