I can always count on you to post after post after post after post in order to divert attention from the posts that I make. Every time.
Right out of the NEOCON playbook.
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Northrop Grumman has been confirmed as the winner of a three-and-a-half year, $95 million contract to develop the first two increments of a new biometric identification system for the Homeland Security Department.
DHS' future Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology system is intended as an upgrade over the current platform built in the 1990s for national security, law enforcement, immigration and intelligence functions.
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an American global aerospace and defense technology company. With over 85,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers. The firm ranks number 118 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of America's largest corporations.
Northrop Grumman and its industry partners have won the Collier Trophy eight times, most recently for developing the X-47B, the first-ever unmanned, autonomous air system operating from an aircraft carrier. In 2004, Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, won the Collier Trophy for the SpaceShipOne which was successful developed for the first privately financed, built, and flown space vehicle. Northrop Grumman currently leads the development of B-21 Raider, a long-range, stealth strategic bomber capable of delivering conventional and thermonuclear weapons; it will replace Northrop's own B-2 Spirit, the only known stealth bomber in the world.
Aerospace Systems
Aerospace Systems, headquartered in Redondo Beach, California, produces aircraft, spacecraft, high-energy laser systems and microelectronics for the U.S. and other nations.
Mission Systems
Mission Systems produces and maintains the AWACS aerial surveillance systems for the U.S., the United Kingdom, NATO, Japan, and others. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the development and integration of the Air Force's $2-billion Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program. Northrop Grumman also supports the U.S. ballistic missile program, integrates various command, control and intelligence systems and provides technical and management services to governmental and military customers, all with an emphasis on cyber security.
Technology Services
The Technology Services sector headquartered in McNair, Virginia (with a Herndon mailing address), works on "the entire life cycle of civil and defense platforms and capabilities through a range of services". Vinnell, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, provides training and communications for the military. In 2003, it landed a $48 million contract to train the Iraqi Army. In 2005 the company won a $2 billion contract with Virginia to overhaul most of the state's IT operations. Later that year, The United Kingdom paid $1.2 billion in a contract with the company to provide maintenance of the country's defensive radar.
Northrop Grumman performs various functions in the War on Drugs. The company sends planes to spray herbicides on suspected cocaine fields in Colombia and opium poppy fields in Afghanistan.
Innovation Systems
On June 7, 2018, the acquisition of Orbital ATK was completed and the former company was absorbed in Northrop Grumman as a new business sector called Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. With this acquisition, Northrop Grumman got more involved in the space industry, which now includes the construction and launch of the Cygnus spacecraft. The firm is in the process of developing the Omega space launch vehicle, which will bring U.S. government's national security satellites into space.
Affiliated companies and partners
Remotec, a subsidiary, is a manufacturer of remote control vehicles for explosive ordnance disposal and hazardous material handling. A UK-based subsidiary, Park Air Systems, provides VHF and UHF ground-to-air communications systems for the civil and defense markets. Northrop Grumman has also worked closely with Antenna Associates, Inc., a manufacturer of Identification friend or foe (IFF)/Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) antennas located in Massachusetts.
In August 2007, Northrop Grumman acquired Scaled Composites in which it had previously owned a 40% stake.
In 2008, Northrop Grumman began working with DHS Systems LLC, manufacturer of the Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelter (DRASH) in New York, as part of the U.S. Army's Standard Integrated Command Post System program.
2010 to present
From 2013, Northrop Grumman participates in the DARPA Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program, and received $2.9 million for Phase 1 and $19 million for Phase 2. The TERN program attempts to launch and recover a UAV from mid-size ships to provide long distance intelligence gathering.
In July 2013, Northrop Grumman won a training-simulation contract potentially worth $490 million to support the U.S. Air Force's next-generation aerial warfare virtual-training network.
In October 2015, the US Military announced it had awarded Northrop Grumman the contract for the successor to the B-1 and B-52, subsequently identified as the B-21. The initial value is $21.4 billion, and could eventually be worth up to $80 billion.
In September 2017, Northrop announced its intention to acquire missile and rocket manufacture Orbital ATK Inc for $9.2 billion: $7.8 billion in cash plus $1.4 billion in net debt. On November 29, 2017, the acquisition was approved by Orbital ATK stockholders and on June 6, 2018 the merger closed after final FTC approval. The acquired company assets and naming were absorbed and become a division named Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.
Political contributions and governmental ties
From 1990 to 2002, Northrop Grumman contributed $8.5 million to federal campaigns. According to PAC summary data compiled by Source Watch, the company gave US $1,011,260 to federal candidates in the 2005–2006 election cycle, compared to $10,612,837 given by all defense contractors in the same cycle. This donation amount was only behind that of General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin in the defense industry. The majority of the contributions, 63%, went to Republicans. Former Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems chief James G. Roche served as Secretary of the Air Force for two years under George W. Bush. Roche would eventually be nominated to head the Army, but withdrew his nomination among accusations of mismanaging a contract with Boeing and of failing to properly handle the Air Force sexual assault scandals of 2003. According to CorpWatch, "at least seven former officials, consultants, or shareholders of Northrop Grumman" have held posts "in the Bush administration...including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Vice-Presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis Libby, Pentagon Comptroller Dov S. Zakheim, and Sean O'Keefe, director of NASA." Wolfowitz and Libby have both since left the government amid scandals.
The company engages third-party lobbying firms in jurisdictions where it has interests. For example, in South Australia it works with lobbying firm CMAX Communications.
Controversies
Too many for this thread.
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) Violations
U.S. State Department investigators found that Litton Industries, a subsidiary acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2000, had provided portions of source code used by guidance and navigation system interfaces aboard Air Force One to a company in Russia in 1998. Northrop Grumman agreed to pay a $15 million fine for 110 violations, occurring between September 1998 and November 1998, of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Additionally, documents filed by the State Department state that between 1994 and 2003, Northrop Grumman failed to notify the U.S. State Department about the computer guidance systems also being transferred to Angola, Indonesia, Israel, China, Ukraine and Yemen.
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