The company recently announced the award of the first low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract, a $29 million award for three mission module packages - one mine countermeasures and two surface warfare packages. Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems is responsible for management of production and all production-related engineering of the mission packages.

"Our CEO recently told the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the defense industrial base will be called upon to find needed solutions at a time of tremendous pressure on the nation's defense investments," said Dan Chang, Northrop Grumman vice president of Maritime and Tactical Systems.

"The Navy's Littoral Combat Ship concept is one Navy response to that call. It maximizes our nation's warfighting capabilities while ultimately minimizing budgetary impact. To help ensure their success, we put together a production team that will maximize the Navy's investment in this concept."

The mission module supplier team comprises: Earl Industries, Portsmouth, Va., which will build the TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) containers and be responsible for mission module electrical systems; Excelco, Silver Creek, N.Y., responsible for the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV) capture spine; Granite State, Manchester, N.H., which will manufacture RMMV cradles; Smith Brothers, Shelby Township, Mich., which will produce the maintenance stand assemblies mission module hardware; and, Teledyne Brown, Huntsville, Ala., for the gun mission modules.

The end items from each of those companies will be shipped to Port Hueneme, where a Northrop Grumman-Navy team will complete the assembly of each package.

The first of the LRIP mission packages will be delivered in 2012 from the Mission Package Support Facility in Port Hueneme. Northrop Grumman will reach an initial production plateau of four packages per year - two each of the surface warfare and mine countermeasures mission packages - in 2014.

A separate set of suppliers produce the various weapon, sensor and other mission systems contained within each package.

Each of the current packages was designed by U.S. Navy laboratories. Northrop Grumman has been the Navy's mission package integrator during the development of the packages and will continue in that role. The company also installs the Mission Package Computing Environment in each Littoral Combat Ship and manages the Mission Package Support Facility for the Navy.

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