Northrop Grumman's Italia and LITEF Subsidiaries Celebrate 50th Anniversaries

PARIS, June 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is celebrating the 50th anniversaries of Northrop Grumman Italia and Northrop Grumman LITEF, the company's navigation systems subsidiaries.

The subsidiaries are integral parts of Northrop Grumman's Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Navigation Systems Division, offering the flexibility of local companies combined with the international reach of a global corporation. This provides the unique ability to provide navigation products worldwide.

Northrop Grumman Italia (NGI), which is based in Pomezia, Italy, and the Freiburg, Germany-based Northrop Grumman LITEF were both established in 1961 to support the manufacturing, assembly and repair of the LN-3 Inertial Navigation System for the F-104 Starfighter aircraft. Since then, the subsidiaries have become industry leaders in producing fiber-optic navigation systems and inertial measurement units, among other products.

"NGI and Northrop Grumman LITEF are key contributors, not only to our company's success, but also to the worldwide navigation systems landscape," said Liz Iversen, sector vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Division. "As we celebrate this major milestone, we look forward to their continued growth and many more fruitful years."

NGI and Northrop Grumman LITEF have a history of mutually beneficial cooperation. During the 1970s, the companies collaborated on the development and production of the Tornado Secondary Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS), which functions as a backup navigation system and sensor for flight control.  Also, during the early 1990s, NGI and Northrop Grumman LITEF were chosen by the main European collaborative program, the Eurofighter, to provide the aircraft with its latest navigation system, Inertial Measurement Unit and various airborne computers. In 1993, the companies jointly launched the fiber-optic gyro (FOG) land navigation system for Army applications.

In 2001, Northrop Grumman LITEF began developing micro-electro-mechanical system gyros, which have become one of the subsidiaries' specialties. In 2003, NGI began expanding into international markets with the commercial success of the LISA-4000 AHRS, which provides flight reference and navigation data.

In 2002, NGI was chosen to retrofit the U.S. Army's entire UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter fleet with the LISA-200 FOG AHRS, which provides vehicle pitch, roll, magnetic heading and turn rate data to the avionic subsystem of an aircraft. Meanwhile, between 1993 and 2008, Northrop Grumman LITEF established its worldwide leadership in FOG systems by producing and delivering more than 64,000 FOG axes to customers.

Today, NGI and Northrop Grumman LITEF continue to design and manufacture precision equipment using state-of-the-art fiber optic and laser gyro technology. NGI employs more than 260 people in its facility near Rome, while Northrop Grumman LITEF employs approximately 700 people in Freiburg.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com for more information.