How Northrop’s Rolling Meadows plant can thrive despite defense cuts
by Paul Merrion, Crain’s Chicago Business
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Northrop Grumman Corp. is pursuing a huge new market for anti-missile systems made at its sprawling Rolling Meadows plant, which could maintain or expand 2,200 jobs there in an era of military spending cutbacks and cement its status as one of Illinois’ largest defense contractors.
Without a guaranteed order in hand, Northrop has developed at its own expense a new anti-missile device designed for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; roughly 2,400 of the ultra-stealthy aircraft are entering production over the next few decades.
More immediately, the sophisticated device also could be retrofitted or added as a pod on thousands of existing fighter jets, according to Los Angeles-based Northrop, which unveiled the device yesterday at a news conference in Washington.
“We believe the opportunity is right around the corner,” said Jeffrey Palombo, sector vice president and general manager of the Rolling Meadows plant.
Although Northrop’s Rolling Meadows operation has more than 60 job openings, mostly for engineers, its workforce is down about 9 percent since defense budget cutbacks started two years ago.
About 3,000 U.S. and foreign aircraft already use Northrop’s devices, which use sensors to detect incoming missiles and then disrupt their targeting systems with a laser beam. It can hit a target from two kilometers away, as Northrop has tested on the roof of its plant here and on moving targets elsewhere.
Until now, the systems have been mounted on helicopters, cargo planes and other relatively slow-moving aircraft most vulnerable to a missile shot from the air, ground or an enemy’s shoulder.
It’s a market that’s “starting to saturate,” said Mr. Palombo. “It’s very important from a business perspective to continue to move forward on new platforms.”
While fighter jets typically shoot off flares or radar-sensitive chaff to throw off incoming missiles, the latest infrared-guided missiles can see through that and home in on a jet engine.
“Speaking generally, it’s obvious with the evolution of heat-seeking missiles that every aircraft will need something like (this),” said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute, a military procurement think tank in Arlington, Va. “Trying to rely on passive measures won’t be enough.”
Northrop Grumman’s Rolling Meadows plant has been the state’s largest recipient of defense contracts for many years, although since 2000 it slipped to second place as Lisle-based Navistar International Inc. received a huge surge of orders for mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
