Navy Contract

The specter of federal budget reductions has meant hundreds of jobs lost at Northrop Grumman Corp. in Maryland, but as the defense contractor vies to build a key Navy radar system, that same cost-cutting pressure could boost the importance of Northrop's Baltimore-area operations, company leaders said. The company, along with rivals Raytheon Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp., is a finalist for what could be a $16 billion program to supply the next-generation radar system for Navy surface ships.

The specter of federal budget reductions has meant hundreds of jobs lost at Northrop Grumman Corp. in Maryland, but as the defense contractor vies to build a key Navy radar system, that same cost-cutting pressure could boost the importance of Northrop's Baltimore-area operations, company leaders said. The company, along with rivals Raytheon Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp., is a finalist for what could be a $16 billion program to supply the next-generation radar system for Navy surface ships.

AAI Corp. has been awarded a $10 million Navy contract to design and develop upgraded electronic testing equipment for the P-3 Orion anti-submarine airplane.The award is the first phase of a contract that could bring up to $50 million in business to the Cockeysville-based company that was one of the fastest-growing defense contractors in the state during the early to mid-1980s but has seen its employment base drop sharply in recent years.Michael Browne, program manager for the P-3 automatic test equipment program, said that the first phase of the contract calls for the production of four units.

The Navy has awarded a contract of up to $10 million to a Baltimore firm for architectural, engineering and other services at installations throughout the mid-Atlantic, the Defense Department announced Thursday. Mimar Architects Inc. beat 64 other bidders to win the agreement to perform work for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command including building construction and renovation work; facility planning; obtaining permits and regulatory approvals; and U.S. Green Building Council leadership in energy and environmental design.

Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s BethShip division has won a $1.7 million Navy contract that will provide a month's work for 160 employees.David Watson, president of the Sparrows Point shipyard, announced the award of a contract to mothball the Military Sealift Command tanker USNS Humphreys.Ted Baldwin, a company spokesman, said the work includes making the tanker resistant to rust and corrosion so it would be ready for future use. "It's a fairly typical contract for us," he said.The Humphreys will join two other Military Sealift Command vessels being repaired at BethShip.

The Pentagon's decision yesterday to cancel production of the A-12 Avenger attack plane could result in the loss of billions of dollars in new business for Maryland's largest manufacturing employer.The Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group near Linthicum was a major subcontractor on the new Navy attack plane. It was selected by General Dynamics Corp. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. to supply the radar for the new plane, as well as an infrared system that uses sophisticated electronic optics and heat sensors in detecting targets.

The Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Sparrows Point has won a $25 million contract to overhaul a floating Navy dry dock, a project that will provide jobs for more than 650 furloughed ship workers next year.Work on the Sustain, a 552-foot-long, 124-foot-wide, multisection drydock based in Norfolk, Va., is to start in May and continue through October. Work will include steel repair and replacement, piping renewal, tank blasting and coating.Bidding for the work was restricted to shipyards in the Navy's Norfolk home port area, in which the Sparrows Point facility is included.

A major Navy contract that was expected to generate up to $1 billion in new business and create about 240 new jobs at the Martin Marietta Corp. plant in Glen Burnie has gone to a West Coast competitor.The Pentagon announced yesterday that the Naval Air Systems Command awarded a division of Hughes Aircraft Co. in Fullerton, Calif., a $31.4 million contract for research and development of a so-called "dipping" sonar unit for anti-submarine warfare.The award is the first step of a new contract that is expected to span 15 to 20 years and total about $1 billion.

Vitro Corp., a Rockville-based defense contractor, was awarded a Navy contract valued at $39.3 million over five years for work on a weapons system to protect ships from aircraft and rocket attack.Arthur Rossi, senior vice president of administration, said the award from the Naval Sea Systems Command is for continued work on one of Vitro's largest contracts.Mr. Rossi said the contract will not add jobs. But, if the company had lost its bid for the work, it would have had to eliminate 30 or more jobs, he said.

In what could signal a steady stream of new work for hundreds of Sparrows Point shipyard employees, Baltimore Marine Industries Inc. has received its first vessel to be dismantled.In its final passage, the frigate USS Patterson arrived at the shipyard about midnight Thursday from Philadelphia after being towed by a tug through the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.Baltimore Marine won a $3.8 million Navy contract in September to scrap the ship. Work is expected to begin Monday.The contract means work for 200 employees for about seven months.

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.

In the Region Marriott reverses its decision, drops Andersen as auditor Hotel operator Marriott International Inc. dropped Arthur Andersen as its independent auditor yesterday, reversing an earlier decision to stick with the troubled accounting firm. Bethesda-based Marriott is the latest company to defect from Andersen, which faces prosecution for its role in the Enron accounting scandal. Marriott said in its March proxy statement that it would keep Andersen, its auditor for 43 years.

The city of Annapolis is battling with one of its grandest institutions, the Naval Academy, which is balking at paying more than a half-million dollars in utility bills. The Navy has refused to pay an increased sewer rate levied last spring on all city residents, businesses and institutions, including the state government and St. John's College. Instead, the academy is clinging to an old rate in an aging contract with the state capital that is less than half the current rate. Tensions are escalating, and a flurry of letters and e-mails reveals a stalemate and a significant difference of opinion.

What was once a mighty submarine hunter, the frigate USS Patterson, is now a couple of Volkswagen Beetle-size hunks of steel and piles and piles of scrap, as Baltimore Marine Industries Inc.'s maiden voyage into the ship-scrapping business draws to a close. Nearly 3,000 tons of steel, 461 tons of aluminum, 62 tons of brass and copper and 54 tons of electrical cable came off the 30-year-old ship, as did a slew of radar and radio equipment, diesel generators and machine presses, all of it to be sold for cash.

In what could signal a steady stream of new work for hundreds of Sparrows Point shipyard employees, Baltimore Marine Industries Inc. has received its first vessel to be dismantled.In its final passage, the frigate USS Patterson arrived at the shipyard about midnight Thursday from Philadelphia after being towed by a tug through the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.Baltimore Marine won a $3.8 million Navy contract in September to scrap the ship. Work is expected to begin Monday.The contract means work for 200 employees for about seven months.

Baltimore Marine Industries Inc. executives are clear on one thing: The shipyard first and foremost is in the repair and conversion business. But it sure wouldn't hurt if the company could land a pending deal with the Navy worth about $500 million -- nearly 10 times the revenue it had last year.The shipyard had been on a fast track to permanent mothballing two years ago, and the fact that it's earning any money at all seems remarkable.In 1997, Bethlehem Steel unloaded its unprofitable BethShip shipyard onto a New York-based merchant banking fund for nearly half the asking price.

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department said yesterday that it has taken over the prosecution of a lawsuit alleging that Martin Marietta Corp. double-billed the government for millions of dollars under a Navy weapons contract.The suit was original filed by a former Martin Marietta employee under the whistle-blower provisions of the False Claims Act, which allow a person with knowledge of fraud against the federal government to sue on behalf of the United States. The government itself can then investigate the claims and take over the lawsuit if it finds that the claims have merit.

Workers at Martin Marietta Corp.'s Middle River complex got some good news yesterday in the form of a new Navy contract, but the word on the West Coast was less welcome, as about 400 jobs in San Diego will be eliminated as the company consolidates its rocket production operations.The company's Aero and Naval Systems division in Baltimore County was awarded a $41.25 million Navy contract to provide design and engineering services related to the production of a rocket-launching system used on ships.

The Navy has renewed its 25-year relationship with Tracor Inc. at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, awarding a contract extension worth up to $27.2 million for air traffic control support, the company said yesterday.Under the new contract, Tracor's Systems Engineering group will continue its role at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division for another five years.The company is based in Texas but has about 45 employees at Patuxent River, all working on a variety of air traffic control radars and landing systems used by Navy aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships.

Rockville-based Tracor Systems Engineering said yesterday that it won a five-year, $34.5 million contract for support services at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va.The contract calls for Tracor employees to provide technical and engineering services for Navy programs that include launchers and missiles.`The Navy has recognized us as a leading source for quality engineering services since 1986,` said Barry G. Campbell, chairman and chief executive officer of Tracor.`The size and scope of this contract will afford us the opportunity to enhance the overall capabilities of our Dahlgren office and to strengthen the capabilities of the Naval Surface Warfare Center.