Northrop Grumman workers in El Segundo and Redondo Beach brace for cuts

[unhappycamper]

Northrop Grumman workers in El Segundo and Redondo Beach brace for cuts
By Walter Hamilton, Los Angeles Times
September 28, 2010

In what could be a harbinger of a protracted retrenchment in Southern California's defense industry, Northrop Grumman Corp. said Monday that it would eliminate 500 jobs in its aerospace division, with most of the cuts expected to hit its sprawling facilities in El Segundo and Redondo Beach.

Century City-based Northrop cited anticipated slowing in Pentagon spending for the cutback, and analysts said further job losses were likely in coming years as the federal government grapples with rising budget deficits.

After several years of heady growth amid one of the biggest military buildups in decades, most analysts are now expecting a long stretch of cuts in weapon purchases. Northrop, the nation's third-largest defense contractor, is one of the largest private employers in the region.

"Considering the business conditions the company faces there is a high likelihood a series of cuts adding up to thousands of workers by mid-decade," said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.

"The irony is that Northrop is in better shape than most, but the customer is out of money," Thompson said, adding that the federal government accounts for 90% of the company's revenue.

[SomeGuynTexas]

1. No sane person or company puts its investments in California.

California used to be ground zero for aerospace and high tech innovation. A perfect location for high tech defense contractors.

Now, it's a dying landscape as defense contractors discover Southern states for their new factories.

The list of companies pulling out of California is only exceeded by the list of people moving out.

Would still love to live there...but work somewhere else.

[zipplewrath]

2. It's been true for several years

The DoD has been "broke" for a few years. Only in terms of "new" weapons acquisition. They'be been able to procure money for replacement weapons, replacements for all those fired or used in the two wars. And there has been a small amount of money available for "modernization" efforts, mostly to replace subsystems that have become technologically obsolete. But any truly "new" weapon systems have been limited. Systems that were put "on the books" a decade or more ago continue to be funded. But the number of systems being put "on the books" now is way down. Worse, there is a major transformation that needs to happen in our military structure for the conflicts we will "face" (i.e. choose to fight for various reasons) that means reducing current systems and focusing on entirely different weapon system structures. Neither the DoD nor the subcontractors are ready for this shift.