Northrop-Grumman wins $1.7B NATO deal
The Northrop Grumman Corp. plant in Bethpage. Credit: Howard Schnapp, 2011
A $1.7-billion NATO contract to build five Global Hawk spy planes will help stabilize Northrop Grumman Corp.'s workforce on Long Island, a company spokesman said.
The Los Angeles-based company said it won the contract to build the Global Hawks and ground surveillance radar sensors from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The deal was scheduled to be announced at a NATO summit meeting in Chicago last night.
Global Hawks are built partly in Mississippi and completed at a Northrop Grumman facility in Palmdale, Calif. Engineers throughout the company will work on the unmanned aircraft's software systems.
Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Dianne Baumert-Moyik said that while the NATO contract will not mean any new jobs, it will help retain the jobs of those employed.
Northrop Grumman has about 1,600 employees on Long Island, the majority of them in Bethpage.
Companies from 13 NATO countries will produce parts of the Global Hawk, she said. Global Hawks have been used by the United States in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
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