Northrop Grumman reported a three percent increase in sales for a total of $6.2 billion in its third-quarter earnings report released Wednesday. The company’s overall growth was led by a nine percent jump in aerospace sales on “higher volume” in its F-35 fuselage and E-2D businesses, as well as growth in sales of its Triton and Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft. Northrop also manufactures the F-35s radar and Distributed Aperture System. In a conference call with reporters Wednesday, CEO Wes Bush said negotiations have been finalized with Lockheed Martin over F-35 low-rate initial production lots nine and 10, and that Northrop was ready “to see benefit” from sustainment costs from the fifth generation fighter jet “as deployment rolls out more aggressively.” In looking forward, Bush said Northrop is positioned to compete for the coming “significant wave of recapitalization” of Air Force programs, but “our customer has to set its priorities.” After years of intense focus on combat operations, Bush said the Department of Defense needs to shift to “re-establishing the integrity of our defense infrastructure” by funding the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, JSTARS, and T-X programs.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…