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DEFINING THE FUTURE IN ELECTRONICS
By Julian Nettlefold
BATTLESPACE visits Northrop Grumman’s Baltimore Electronic Systems facility
10 Oct 08. Having visited the Northrop Grumman Rancho Bernardo, California facility in May, BATTLESPACE took the opportunity to visit the Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems sector facility in Baltimore after the AUSA Exhibition in Washington DC. BATTLESPACE is no stranger to electronics facilities but the sheer size and depth of the Northrop Baltimore facility can only be understood during a visit. The Baltimore facility forms part of the huge $7 billion Electronics business of Northrop Grumman, one of four business areas as described on the Northrop web site.
Information & Services
Northrop Grumman puts information to work. As a trusted partner, the company develops systems and solutions that deliver timely, enabling information where it is needed most for its military, intelligence, federal, state and local government, and commercial customers
Electronics
Northrop Grumman’s electronic solutions span the spectrum. The company is a leading developer, manufacturer, integrator and supporter of a variety of advanced electronic and maritime systems for U.S. and international customers for national security and non-defense applications.
Aerospace
Northrop Grumman’s aerospace systems operate from the high ground. The company is a premier developer, integrator, producer and supporter of manned and unmanned aircraft, spacecraft, high-energy laser systems, microelectronics and other systems and subsystems critical to maintaining the nation’s security and leadership in science and technology.
Shipbuilding
Ships built by Northrop Grumman project power worldwide. The company is the nation’s sole industrial designer, builder and refueler of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and one of only two companies that design and build nuclear-powered submarines. The business is also one of the nation’s leading providers and life-cycle supporters of major surface ships for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, international navies and commercial vessels.
Put in context the turnover of the Electronics business, $7 billion is equivalent to the turnover of the whole of Thales. The Division has 20,700 employees in 22 facilities. The Baltimore engineering and manufacturing facility, which has its roots in the Westinghouse Corporation, spans two huge sites of 130 acres each. It even has its own taxiway direct into the BWI Thurgood Marshall airport complex.
“It was in 1996 that Northrop Grumman bought Westinghouse’s defense electronics business as it sought to diversify into electronics in particular. Northrop Grumman made other acquisitions in this area over the years and put them into the Electronics business.” Jack Martin, Jr, Director Public Relations, of Northrop Grumman’s Baltimore facility told BATTLESPACE.
Northrop Grumman’s electronic solutions span the spectrum. The company is a leading developer, manufacturer, integrator and supporter of a variety of advanced electronic and maritime systems for U.S. and international customers for national security and non-defense applications.
Systems include high performance sensors and intelligence processing and navigation systems operating in all environments from undersea to outer space. Applications include airborne surveillance, space sensing, biochemical detection, intelligence fusing and analysis, aircraft fire control, precision weapon engagement, electronic countermeasures, inertial navigation, air and missile defense, air traffic control, ship bridge control, communications and mail processing. Maritime systems include propulsion and power-generation systems for ships and submarines, control systems, shipboard launch systems and unmanned semi-autonomous systems.
It is worth examining the Westinghouse heritage to find the huge depth of technology and expertise residing at Northrop.
Westinghouse built the first airborne radar in 1940 and this division formed the core of Westinghouse’s aerospace and defense business in 1951. The Electronic Systems sector’s Maryland-based products include a wide variety of radar systems for fighter and surveillance aircraft as well as helicopters. These include fire control and navigation radars for the F-16, C-130, B-1B, F-22 and F-35 aircraft as well as other key avionics for the F-16 Block 60 and F-35 aircraft. The most recent addition to the company’s family of multi-function sensors is the Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) designed for retrofit on F-16 fighters and other platforms. In a joint venture with Lockheed Martin, the company is also producing the radar and “fire and forget” missile system for the U.S. Army’s Apache Longbow helicopter.
Airborne surveillance radar systems include the heritage AWACS and the new Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar sensor for the Boeing 737 airborne early warning and control aircraft being produced for the governments of Australia, Turkey and South Korea.
In addition, in association with Raytheon, Northrop is currently developing the MP-RTIP radar in two versions. A slimmed–down version for the next generation of Global Hawk’s and for the eventual upgrade of the Joint STARS aircraft which are fitted out at the Company’s Melbourne, Florida facility. The original Joint STARS radar sensor was designed and manufactured at Northrop Grumman’s electronics facility in Norwalk, Conn.
Northrop Grumman’s Baltimore facility is also developing and producing the new Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) for the U.S. Marine Corps that consolidates the missions of five Marine Corps radars into a single multi-role radar system.
In addition to radars, Northrop’s Electronics business produces standard-setting infrared countermeasure systems that protect more than 300 military aircraft; provides LITENING AT targeting pods that use electro-optical sensing and laser range finding to geo-locate targets for engagement with GPS-guided munitions; develops industry-leading global positioning inertial navigation systems; develops advanced infrared payloads for the next-generation SBIRS satellite constellation that will detect ballistic launches; produces laser targeting systems for ground forces; and develops main propulsion units and ship service turbine generators for Virginia-class submarines.
Northrop radars, electro-optical, electronic countermeasures, and communications systems have flown on more than 45,000 military and public safety aircraft worldwide.
To demonstrate the Company’s capabilities and technologies, BATTLESPACE was given a tour of one of the two huge facilities in Baltimore by Kevin Gibbons, Manager for Operations Engineering.
“You are standing in the core of Northrop’s radar capabilities.” Kevin Gibbons said. “This is where it all starts with a warehouse housing hundreds of thousands of components and other raw material in over 74,000 different bin locations. We currently have over 5,400 suppliers in addition to the components made here. The whole facility takes up 130 acres and covers 1.8 million square feet. We have 3,750 engineers in this facility where the radar modules are built which includes Field Engineering Support Engineers.”
“Do you manufacture the AESA modules here?”
“In many cases we will design and build modules for our AESA technology. However, when the business case justifies, some modules are outsourced to a qualified supplier who builds to our design specifications. We are continually working to improve our design and corresponding processes, since this technology is a core competency relative to the future of AESA radars,” added Gibbons.
“How much of your production is outsourced?”
“We decide on the risk factor and the numbers required before outsourcing or making in-house. We have our own Circuit Card Assembly (CCA) Cell which can make CCAs for a whole range of applications, including missile modules. These are housed in a clean, highly-automated facility to ensure that the products are built to ensure that little maintenance is required after installation in the radar module. The completed CCAs are then transferred on demand to our cell-based radar module manufacturing line.
“Other products associated with the manufacture of AESA components are highly automated. For example, in association with an industry partner we installed a robotic build and test facility several years ago that allows key components to be manufactured with very little human interface,” Gibbons said.
Northrop Grumman’s Electronic Systems sector is the largest manufacturing employer in Maryland with approximately 9,000 employees at its various plant and office locations in the Baltimore area and elsewhere statewide.
“This calendar year, we expect to hire upwards of 500 people across our Baltimore area operations, primarily individuals with specialized engineering and other technical skill sets. And while many of the new hires will be to accommodate normal workforce attrition, some of these job openings are in support of new business requirements,” said Martin.
The sheer size of the Baltimore facility did not stop there.
“A new five-story, 160,000 square foot office building being constructed adjacent to our Electronic Systems headquarters will serve as the new home for several hundred employees of our Advanced Concepts and Technology Division who are involved in a wide range of new product research and development activities. These employees are currently housed in several nearby leased facilities. The new building is due for completion next year,” added Martin.
As the Editor took in the sheer size and breadth of Northrop’s Baltimore facility, it became quite clear that Northrop’s Electronic Systems sector was the United States centre for future radar technology now and in the future. A great legacy created from small beginnings of the 1886 foundation of the Westinghouse Electric Company by George Westinghouse.
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