Northrop Grumman Opens New Facility for Ministry of Defence Gyrocompass Technical Support in New Malden, U.K.

LONDON, June 1, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation
(NYSE:NOC) today officially opened its new U.K. technical support centre to
provide service, repair and maintenance for the company's inertial navigation
systems (INS) used in Royal Navy ships and submarines. 

The new naval gyrocompass support centre, located at Northrop Grumman's Sperry
Marine facility in New Malden, U.K., contains a full repair and calibration
workshop to support NATO ship INS (SINS) installed on Royal Navy surface
warships and attack submarines. Sperry Marine is under contract with the U.K.
Ministry of Defence (MoD) to provide ongoing in-service support for these
systems. 

The event was attended by Northrop Grumman executives, as well as MoD officials
and local political leaders. They received a tour of the facility as well as
briefings on and demonstrations of its capabilities. 

"This new facility will significantly enhance Northrop Grumman's U.K.-based
technical capabilities and marks a major milestone in our continuing programme
of improving the support we provide to our MoD customers," said Sir Nigel
Essenhigh, chairman of Northrop Grumman U.K. "The gyro support centre in New
Malden will enable us to provide faster turnaround times and more responsive
service support for these important mission-critical shipboard components." 

"The new workshop will enable our U.K. employees to perform repairs and
re-calibration services for the sophisticated inertial measurement units, which
are at the heart of these military shipboard systems," said J. Nolasco DaCunha,
vice president of Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine. "Today's opening represents
the culmination of many months of work to install the workshop facilities and
establish the security systems required by the U.K. MoD." 

Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine's offices in New Malden are responsible for a
number of major MoD programmes, including the integrated platform management
systems being fitted on the Type 45 destroyers and the new Astute-class
submarines, as well as the integrated navigation and bridge system being
developed for the next generation of Royal Navy aircraft carriers. In addition,
the New Malden facility is Sperry Marine's primary centre of excellence for
navigation radar and electronic charting technology for commercial marine and
international defence markets. 

"The gyro support centre is part of a major investment we are making in our New
Malden facility," said Dhanvant Goradia, director of Sperry Marine's New Malden
business unit. "We are currently nearing the completion of a large-scale
modernisation programme for our Burlington House office, which will make the
building more attractive and energy efficient as we continue to play an
important role in the local economy as a major employer." 

Based on Sperry Marine's proprietary ring-laser gyro technology, the SINS
devices provide extremely precise 3-D position and attitude reference data for
the vessels' navigation and weapons systems. Sperry Marine is a world leader in
ring-laser gyro inertial navigation technology, having supplied the vast
majority of SINS shipboard devices currently deployed with NATO and
international naval forces around the world. 

Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine, headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., and with
major engineering and support offices in New Malden, United Kingdom and
Hamburg, Germany, provides smart navigation and ship control solutions for the
international marine industry with customer service and support through offices
in 16 countries, sales representatives in 47 countries and authorized service
depots in more than 250 locations worldwide. 

Northrop Grumman in the U.K. operates from primary locations in London,
Fareham, Chester, Coventry, New Malden, Peterborough, RAF Waddington and
Solihull and provides avionics, communications, electronic warfare systems,
marine navigation systems, robotics, C4ISR solutions and mission planning, IT
systems and software development, aircraft maintenance and airport security
solutions. 

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000
employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace,
electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to
government and commercial customers worldwide. 

CONTACT:  Ken Beedle
          Northrop Grumman Corporation (London)
          +44 207 747 1910
          +44 7787 174092
          ken.beedle@euro.ngc.com

          Tom Delaney
          Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
          +1 (410) 993-6454
          thomas.delaney@ngc.com