Northrop Grumman opens new GBSD development facility
13th Oct 2021 | In News | By Michael Tyrrell
Northrop Grumman has opened a new facility in Huntsville to support the US Air Force’s Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) programme.
The new facility expands the company’s role supporting critical US national security, as well as adding new jobs to the region.
The newly renovated facility is located in a revitalised area of the historic Cummings Research Park where employees will support development of the next-generation nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system.
“We are excited to grow our GBSD team in Alabama and leverage the dynamic aerospace talent in the Rocket City to support this critical strategic deterrent capability for our country and allies,” said Greg Manuel, vice president and general manager, strategic deterrent systems, Northrop Grumman. “Huntsville’s rich expertise and legacy in command and control systems will help our nationwide team deliver a safe, secure and effective capability to the US Air Force on time and on cost. We look forward to continuing our strong community partnerships and delivering 21st century innovation for our customer missions.”
In total, Northrop Grumman continues strong growth in the region with more than 2,000 employees currently in Alabama supporting numerous Department of Defense and NASA customer missions.
GBSD is a USAF programme to modernise the land-based leg of the US strategic nuclear triad.
Northrop Grumman was awarded the $13.3 billion engineering and manufacturing contract for GBSD in September 2020 and is leading a nationwide team to develop the system and deliver an initial operational capability by 2029. The company’s GBSD headquarters is in Roy, Utah.
In April, Northrop Grumman successfully conducted an initial review for the GBSD engineering and manufacturing development programme.
In addition to GBSD, key programmes in Huntsville include the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) and the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) programmes, the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS), as well as hardware integration and test support for NASA missions.
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