Northrop Grumman Corporation held a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday to highlight its expansion of the company’s satellite engineering and manufacturing operations in Arizona. The expansion includes a 100,000 square foot addition to its existing satellite manufacturing facility and a new 120,000 square foot administrative and engineering building.
“Today’s groundbreaking event marks an expansion that is expected to create full-time, high-wage jobs locally with potential for additional job growth,” said Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager, tactical space systems, Northrop Grumman. “This expansion also continues the long history of developing innovative aerospace products in the Gilbert area that help customers achieve mission success while creating new aerospace jobs in the region.”
These facilities enable the site to meet projected business growth and increased customer demand for high-quality, flight-proven satellites for NASA and the Department of Defense, as well as commercial and international customers.
“Arizona is proud to be a leader in aerospace and defense, and Northrop Grumman is a big part of that success,” said Governor Doug Ducey. “Today’s announcement will mean more good jobs in fields like engineering, manufacturing and technology. We’re grateful for their continued investment and expansion in Arizona.”
The expansion will double the current production capacity at the satellite manufacturing facility, which is one of the largest and most advanced satellite assembly and test facilities in the United States. The new administrative and engineering building will be a two-story structure complementing an existing office facility built three years ago.
Located approximately 15 miles east of Phoenix, Northrop Grumman’s Gilbert Campus produces satellites for a variety of domestic and international customers. Northrop Grumman’s satellite business began in Gilbert in the early 1990’s and has grown significantly with a state-of-the-art facility that provides design, manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing in support of high profile satellite missions. Programs under production include critical science missions such as NASA’s Landsat 9 and Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites in addition to other programs that support our national security.
Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 90,000 employees define possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services.