Northrop opens headquarters

BYLINE: MARIAN ACCARDI, Times Business Writer

Company's new building is first in $80M campus

Gov. Bob Riley and local officials joined executives with Northrop Grumman Corp. at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday for a 110,000-square-foot Huntsville headquarters. It's the first building of a planned $80 million, four-building campus at Cummings Research Park. 

"It's a great day for our company," said Dr. Ronald Sugar, the company's chairman and chief executive officer. The campus, he said, will "help consolidate most of the 1,200 Northrop Grumman employees in the Huntsville area in a single location."

The new building houses 400 employees from several of the defense company's business units in Huntsville.

Northrop Grumman's employees here develop products for military operations, including command centers, workstations and precision munitions. Customers in the region include the U.S. Army Space and Missile Command, the Army Aviation and Missile Command, the Army Program Executive Office for Aviation, the Army Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"It's important work we do here," said Sugar, and "its importance will unfortunately increase. The world is not getting safer."

The company provides high-tech, high-paying jobs - "jobs that won't be outsourced to other nations," said Sugar.

Riley called Northrop Grumman a "true American company that defines the pursuit of excellence." The work performed by the Huntsville team not only helps define America's military, "it also defines the future of Alabama."

The opening of the first building on the new Huntsville campus is "an exciting milestone" for Northrop Grumman employees, said Daniel Montgomery, the corporate lead executive for Huntsville. Northrop Grumman and predecessor companies have been a part of the Huntsville community for about 40 years, and "we're still growing," said Montgomery.

Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer said visitors to Cummings Research Park are always impressed by the names of the companies located there.

"Northrop Grumman has added to our credibility," she said.