BALTIMORE, March 3, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has established a Chem-Bio Defense Technology Center to develop next-generation technologies that will build on the success of the company's Biohazard Detection System, which is currently being installed in U.S. Postal Service facilities nationwide.
The Center will leverage three areas of Northrop Grumman expertise-mass spectrometry, electro-optics and micro-electro-mechanical systems bioassays-used to detect and identify minute amounts of chemical or biological agents and warn against them in time to allow effective treatment of those affected by an attack. The Center, located at the company's Electronic Systems sector's Advanced Technology Laboratory near the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, is currently executing its first development contract and negotiating or competing for others with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
"In establishing the Center, we acknowledge the seriousness of the chem-bio threat," said Taylor W. Lawrence, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Systems Development and Technology Division. "The technologies we're refining will reduce the size and cost of sensors and detection systems as well as make them faster and more sensitive."
Jim Carlini, vice president of Products and Technology at Northrop Grumman, added, "We intend to bring to the chem-bio detection and countermeasures arena the same kind of commitment to advanced technology development and sensor systems expertise that we've brought for decades to the broader defense industry."
Northrop Grumman's Baltimore-based Electronic Systems sector is a world leader in the design, development, and manufacture of defense and commercial electronic systems and sensors, including airborne radar, navigation systems, electronic countermeasures, precision weapons, airspace management systems, communications systems, space sensors, marine and naval systems, government systems, and logistics services.
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