RESTON, Va., July 25, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) recently signed a U.S. Department of Defense agreement with the U.S. Air Force Mentor-Protege program office at Brooks City-Base, Texas, to provide technology transfer, business development and infrastructure assistance to SenarioTek, a Santa Rosa, Calif.-based, woman-owned small business.
The Mentor-Protege program encourages prime contractors to support small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, service disabled veteran-owned small businesses and Historically Underutilized Business small businesses in its efforts to increase participation in federal subcontracts and establish long-term relationships with prime contractors.
SenarioTek designs and assembles custom test equipment, including radio frequency (RF) and microwave subsystems, RF system integration and hardware solutions, precision cables, and the e-trak(tm) family of products. SenarioTek focuses on aerospace and defense customers, and also serves the test equipment needs of the telecommunications, satellite and semiconductor industries. The company provides turnkey hardware solutions for automated test equipment customers. They design and assemble subsystems, fabricate cables, purchase all required test equipment, fabricate and integrate the subsystems into racks, fully test the system and ship the system to the customer.
This is SenarioTek's first time participating in the Mentor-Protege program.
"SenarioTek is honored and excited to be accepted into the Mentor-Protege program with Northrop Grumman. We are looking forward to expanding our relationship with Northrop Grumman to deliver high performance testing capability for its Air Force and other Defense Department-related products. This is a wonderful opportunity for our company and our employees to improve our processes, quality and supply chain management," said Simi Ghiasvand, SenarioTek president.
Southwestern College, Chula Vista, Calif., will place student interns with interest and educational backgrounds in software and electronics test technology in SenarioTek.
The SenarioTek protege effort is designed to improve product turn-around time and reliability while reducing costs, defects and customer return rates. Major efforts will include improvements in test automation, data management, production tooling, and standardization of parts, materials, and processes.
Since 1992, Northrop Grumman has assisted 90 small businesses under the program and currently has 20 active Mentor-Protege agreements. Northrop Grumman has received 17 Nunn-Perry Awards from the Defense Department since 1995 for its work with protege companies under the Mentor-Protege program.
"Northrop Grumman has a proud history of supporting small business concerns through the Air Force Mentor-Protege program, and we will continue to assist new proteges with various technology transfers that maintain a high level of commitment to the customer and benefit the warfighter," said Tizoc S. Loza, Northrop Grumman's corporate project manager for Mentor-Protege programs. "We congratulate SenarioTek and Northrop Grumman's Network Communications Division on their hard work and dedication, and we look forward to their accomplishing great things together."
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a $30 billion global defense and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.