Northrop Grumman relocates operation for Navy contract from Va. to Somerset Co.

Northrop Grumman Corp. is moving an engineering and fabrication operation from Virginia to Somerset County on Maryland's Eastern Shore, state and county officials said Thursday. The work supports a U.S. Navy contract.

The company signed a lease for a 53,000-square-foot building in the Princess Anne Industrial Park in Princess Anne. The building, which the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development built in 2002 to attract companies to the area, had been occupied by Oddi Atlantic, a commercial printing business that shut down in 2008.

County officials said they have long focused on attracting aerospace engineering to the county. Northrop Grumman's work in Princess Anne will support a Navy contract that provides engineering, analysis, production and field support for missile targets. When the operation moves in on Nov. 1, it will bring 25 jobs, but Northrop Grumman plans to grow it to 40 or 50 employees, said spokeswoman Fran Kelty.

The company chose Princess Anne site in part because of its proximity to NASA Wallops Flight Facility, where the Navy plans future missions, said Rob Maddox, a Northrop Grumman program manager for the Navy contract.

[e-mail]

• Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts