EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Jan. 31, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- More than 1,000 employees at Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) here joined officials from the U.S. Navy and The Boeing Company today to mark delivery of the 100th center/aft fuselage section for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the Navy's newest tactical fighter.
The F/A-18 program accounts for more than 1,500 jobs at Northrop Grumman and hundreds more at other subcontractors in Southern California.
Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector, the principal F/A-18 subcontractor to prime contractor Boeing, produces the Super Hornet's center and aft fuselage, twin vertical tails and integrates all associated subsystems at its Air Combat Systems facility in El Segundo. These F/A-18 "shipsets" are delivered to Boeing's Military Aircraft and Missile Systems facility in St. Louis, Mo., for final assembly.
Including the newest E/F model, Northrop Grumman has delivered a total of 1,579 shipsets since the F/A-18 program began in the 1970s. The F/A-18C/D model has seen extensive action in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, and the Super Hornet is scheduled for its first operational deployment this year.
"Our employees are extremely proud of their contributions to an aircraft that is helping to defend our freedom," said Gary W. Ervin, Northrop Grumman sector vice president for Air Combat Systems. "We're committed to delivering a quality product, because it must protect the lives of our men and women in combat."
The E/F has been in production since 1994 and features improved power, greater range and weapons capability and advanced avionics. The Navy plans to buy a minimum of 548 Super Hornets through 2010.
The F/A-18E/F program has been on cost, on schedule and under its specified weight since its development began in the early 1990s.
Northrop Grumman, which delivered its first Super Hornet shipset in 1998, performs its work under a $3.16 billion multiyear procurement contract for 222 shipsets awarded by Boeing in 2000. Current production rate is 4.5 shipsets per month.
Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems, headquartered in Dallas, Tex., is a premier aerospace systems integration enterprise. Integrated Systems has the capabilities to design, develop, integrate, produce and support complete systems, as well as airframe subsystems, for airborne surveillance and battle management aircraft, early warning aircraft, airborne electronic warfare aircraft and air combat aircraft. It is also integrating these capabilities for emerging network-centric warfare concepts.
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