Northrop Grumman is preparing to cut as many as 1,000 jobs at its Space Park facility in Redondo Beach after the US Space Force canceled a contract to develop a military communications satellite.
The agency terminated the multibillion-dollar program because of high costs, difficulties developing its payload and a schedule delay, according to a regulatory filing and people familiar with the decision, according to Bloomberg.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Feb. 27, Northrop spokesman Jacob Palenske said the company filed a WARN notice with the state Employment Development Department and informed employees at the 110-acre Space Park campus of the potential workforce reductions.
“Approximately 1,000 employees are impacted,” he said.
Palenske said the company is working to match affected employees with existing job openings and opportunities across Northrop Grumman.
He said efforts are ongoing and “a higher number of employees received WARN notices than may ultimately be impacted.”
The company didn’t provide further details on the layoffs or what categories of jobs are impacted by the cuts.
Northrop was formally notified last month of the termination, the defense contractor said in a regulatory filing. It offered no details on the classified satellite or the reasons it was called off. That information was provided by people who commented on condition of anonymity because of its secret status, Bloomberg said.
The decision to cancel the program was spearheaded by Frank Calvelli, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for space acquisition, according to a US official and an industry official familiar with the decision.
Calvelli notified congressional committees last year of his intention to seek cancellation as part of preparation for the Space Force’s budget presentation for fiscal 2025.
As a result, funding for the program contained in a $841 million procurement request for “Space Force Special Space Activities” was slashed in the final defense policy bill for fiscal 2024, the current year, with lawmakers citing a $497 million “classified overrun.”
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Northrop Grumman employs about 100,000 people nationwide, with more than 550 facilities in 50 U.S. states and in more than 25 countries worldwide.
Space Park opened in 1961, originally housing Space Technology Laboratories, a subsidiary of the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation. The company became part of TRW Inc. in 1963. In 2002, Northrop Grumman purchased TRW, and the site now is a key part of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.
Northrop Grumman isn’t the only aerospace company that’s been hit with budget cuts.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory laid off 100 contractors last month and warned that more layoffs may be coming as the facility braces for sharp federal budget cuts to a program aimed at bringing pieces of Mars to Earth.
In an email to employees, JPL director Laurie Leshin said NASA was expecting a budget that could limit Mars Sample Return spending to $300 million for the current fiscal year. That amounts to 36% of the $822 million spent in the previous year and well below the $949 million the Biden administration sought for the program.
Staff reporter Kevin Smith contributed to this report.