Northrop Grumman is a major US weapons company with multiple sites in Massachusetts. Northrop Grumman sells extensive amounts of weapons and military technologies to Israel, as well as the US military and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Northrop Grumman is deeply complicit in Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland and theft of Palestinian resources. As reported by AFSC Investigate, Northrop Grumman developed manned aircraft missile systems, which the Israeli Air Force uses in its attacks on Palestinians. In collaborative ventures with Lockheed Martin (another major US weapons manufacturer), Northrop Grumman provides Israel with the Longbow System used in Israel's fleet of Apache AH64D helicopters. Similarly, Northrop Grumman collaborates with Lockheed Martin in the production of the F-35 fighter jets which Lockheed sells to Israel, with Northrop Grumman producing key parts for these F-35 (see also here and here). Northrop Grumman also produces parts used in F-16 fighter jets sold to Israel. Israel has used these F-16 jets, Apache helicopters, and other weapons systems containing Northrop Grumman component parts in its repeated attacks on densely populated areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as in Lebanon. In these attacks, Israel has targeted civilian homes, civilian infrastructure, and refugee camps (see: here, here, and here).
Northrop Grumman sells extensive amounts of weaponry and military technologies to the US military, and is deeply complicit in the global violence and destruction wrought by US imperialism. As reported by AFSC Investigate, Northrop Grumman made $12 billion through U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracts in FY2020, making Northrop the fifth largest US DoD contractor of FY2020. From 1997 to February 2022, Northrop Grumman derived a total of $139.1 billion through contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense -- $45.68 billion of which came from contracts for the provision of products and services to the US Air Force, $44.18 billion from contracts to serve the US Navy, and $18.85 billion from contracts to serve the US Army. As one recent example, in December 2021 the US Army awarded Northrop Grumman a $1.4 billion contract to develop the US Army’s new Battle Command System (the "Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System"). According to the US Army's statement about the contract, "Northrop will deliver up to 160 systems to the Army and foreign partners."
Northrop Grumman is deeply complicit in the US government's regime of tracking, detention, and deportations of Black and Brown migrants. As reported by AFSC Investigate, in 2020, Northrop Grumman won a 10-year contract with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) worth a potential $896.1 million, to provide maintenance for US Customs and Border Protection's P-3 aircraft fleet. Prior to this contract, Northrop Grumman held a separate CBP contract from 2014-2019 worth $337 million, through which Northrop carried out work to modernize CBP's TECS database. CBP's TECS database "facilitates information sharing among federal, state, local, and tribal government agencies," and CBP uses this database for data organization to "support law enforcement 'lookouts,' border screening, and reporting for CBP's primary and secondary inspection processes." Northrop Grumman also provides CBP with drone-mounted military-grade radar system technologies, which CBP uses to track and surveil the movements of migrants along the US-Mexico border.
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As reported by AFSC Investigate, in 2020, Northrop Grumman won a 10-year contract with US Customs and Border Protection (a sub-agency of DHS) worth a potential $896.1 million, to provide maintenance for US Customs and Border Protection's P-3 aircraft fleet. Prior to this contract, Northrop Grumman held a separate CBP contract from 2014-2019 worth $337 million, through which Northrop carried out work to modernize CBP's TECS database, through which CBP "facilitates information sharing among federal, state, local, and tribal government agencies" and for data organization to "support law enforcement 'lookouts,' border screening, and reporting for CBP's primary and secondary inspection processes." Northrop Grumman also provides CBP with drone-mounted military-grade radar system technologies, which CPB uses to track and surveil the movements of migrants along the US-Mexico border.
Elbit Systems and Northrop Grumman have collaborated in the development of a "Terrain Following and Terrain Avoidance (TF/TA) system," meant to "enable pilots to fly and maneuver more safely in Terrain Following/Terrain Avoidance (TF/TA) flight mode under all weather conditions, day and night."
According to a 2011 article in ComputerWorld, "Defense contractor Northrop Grumman folded i2's Coplink into a system it is providing to the Navy to track criminal information from multiple sources." COPLINK is a surveillance and criminalization platform developed by IBM and the software company i2 which has been called "google for police officers," and through which hundreds of police departments in MA and nationwide share their field interviews, arrest, complaint, accident, and citation reports, as well as other information with one another.
Weapons developer Northrup Grumman has been a "member company" (sponsor) of MIT Media Lab.
Northrop Grumman is one of MIT's partners in "cybersecurity." As a 2009 press release from MIT states: "Northrop Grumman Corporation has invited three of the nation’s leading cybersecurity research institutions, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon and Purdue University to join a newly formed Cybersecurity Research Consortium to advance research in this field and develop solutions to counter the complex cyber threats facing our economy, freedom of information, and national security....The Northrop Grumman Cybersecurity Research Consortium (NGCRC) members maintain laboratories and centers recognized worldwide for their research in this area. They include MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab, and Purdue’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS)."
Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin collaborate in the production of Apache AH64D Helicopters sold to Israel. Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin also collaborate in the production of F-35 fighter jets sold to Israel, with Northrop Grumman producing key component parts for these F-35 fighter jets (see also here and here). Israel has used these Apache Helicopters and fighter jets in its repeated attacks on densely populated areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as in Lebanon. In these attacks, Israel has targeted civilian homes, civilian infrastructure, and refugee camps. (See: here and here)
Manager of Software Development at Northrop Grumman Curtis Jones was a Senior Executive Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School (2011). Prior to his studies at Harvard Kennedy and his employment at Northrop Grumman, Jones spent 22 years in the US Air Force.
Former Northrop Grumman Director for Strategy and Global Relations John Johns is a graduate of Harvard Kennedy's National and International Security Program. Johns also spent "seven years as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Maintenance establishing policy for, and leading oversight of the Department’s annual $80B weapon system maintenance program and deployed twice in support of security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Jones' and Johns' respective career trajectories are emblematic of the "revolving door" which exists between elite institutions of knowledge production like Harvard Kennedy, the US war machine and national security state (which feeds its people into these elite institutions), and the US weapons industry (which seeks business from US war machine and national security state).
Northrop Grumman Chairman, CEO, and President Kathy Warden, as well as Northrop Grumman Corporate Vice President and Treasurer Todd Ernst were presenters at Citigroup's 2020 Global Industrials Conference. A year later in 2021, Kathy Warden along with and Northrop Grumman Corporate Vice President and CFO Dave Keffer were presenters at Citigroup's 2021 Global Industrials Conference.
Northrop Grumman has made $19.27 billion to date through US DoD contracts for the provision of products and services to the US Army.
Northrop Grumman has made $46.76 billion to date through US DoD contracts for the provision of products and services to the US Air Force.
Northrop Grumman has made $45.09 billion to date through US DoD contracts for the provision of products and services to the US Navy.