Northrop Grumman Italia Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary

POMEZIA, Italy, June 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Last week, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) celebrated the 50th anniversary of Northrop Grumman Italia (NGI), the company's navigation systems subsidiary based in Pomezia, Italy.

Established in 1961, Northrop Grumman Italia is an industry leader in designing and manufacturing precision equipment using state-of-the-art fiber optic and laser gyro technology, specializing in high-accuracy inertial navigation systems and attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS).

Northrop Grumman Italia expands the international reach of Northrop Grumman's Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Navigation Systems Division, offering the flexibility of a local company combined with the worldwide reach of a global corporation.

"As the only Italian navigation systems supplier, Northrop Grumman Italia fills an important role in providing international navigation systems and situational awareness products," said Helen Pickup, general manager of Northrop Grumman Italia. "As we celebrate this major milestone, we look forward to continued growth and delivering meaningful contributions to this industry."

During the 1960s, Northrop Grumman Italia performed manufacturing, assembly and repair of the LN-3 Inertial Navigation System for the F-104 Starfighter aircraft used by the Italian air force. In the early 1970s, the company designed, developed and manufactured the Tornado Secondary Attitude and Heading Reference system, which functions as a backup navigation system and sensor for flight control.

In 1990, Northrop Grumman Italia was chosen by the main European collaborative program, the Eurofighter, to provide the aircraft with its latest navigation system. Then, in 2003, the commercial success of the LISA-4000 AHRS represented the beginning of the company's expansion into international markets.

Today, Northrop Grumman Italia employs more than 260 people in a facility of 226,000 square feet near Rome. The company's more recent notable achievements include its successful bid to retrofit the U.S. Army's entire UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter fleet with the LISA-200 FOG AHRS, a lightweight Fiber Optic Gyroscope Attitude Heading Reference System that provides vehicle pitch, roll, magnetic heading and turn rate data to the avionic subsystem of an aircraft.

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.