Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s plan to eliminate as many as 800 jobs — the second steep reduction for the Linthicum-based Electronic Systems division this year — could presage cutbacks by other federal contractors and further blows to the state's economy. Federal deficits — and a budget-cutting mood in Washington — have left Maryland companies less and less able to rely on government work, analysts said Thursday. Defense giants such as Northrop Grumman are particularly vulnerable, they said.

Joseph Emmett Queen Jr., who spent three decades as a systems engineer for Westinghouse and its successor company, Northrop Grumman, died of unknown causes Sept. 12 at his home in Riva. He was 57. A Baltimore native, Mr. Queen grew up in and around the Guilford and Roland Park neighborhoods. He attended the Cathedral School, Loyola High School and Loyola College (now Loyola University Maryland). He received his master's degree in computer science from the Johns Hopkins University in 1983.

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s plan to cut 500 jobs in the Baltimore region — largely through buyouts but also with 70 layoffs — underscores the uncomfortable shift defense contractors are feeling as the era of big spending growth ends. The Baltimore-area reductions account for most of the nationwide cuts Northrop Grumman is making to its electronic systems sector, which produces airborne radar, navigation systems and other military equipment. The defense-contracting giant notified affected employees at the sector's Linthicum headquarters and several other locations Tuesday that their last day of work would be May 31. Northrop Grumman blamed a reduction in business "that is directly related to the current slow-down in defense spending as well as increasing international economic pressures" — a problem facing not only the industry but the state.

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. expects to lay off about 200 employees at the end of the month, most of them in the Baltimore area. In March, the company said it would need to cut 500 jobs in its electronic systems sector — either through buyouts or layoffs — as a result of a reduction in business it attributed to "delays and uncertainty in a number of domestic and international programs. " Spokesman Jack Martin Jr. said Friday that about 600 employees were approved for buyouts, largely in Maryland, but that there weren't enough in all areas with "an insufficient amount of work" to forestall pink slips.

Two contractors have warned state regulators that they will lay off a total of nearly 230 employees over the next few months. Northrop Grumman Corp., one of Maryland's largest employers, said Tuesday that 145 Elkridge-based employees will lose their jobs because the U.S. Postal Service contract they have been working on is ending. The layoffs will start April 26 and conclude at the end of August, said company spokesman David R. Apt. Separately, Philadelphia-based Aramark told the state that its 83 employees providing custodial and housekeeping services to Towson University will lose their jobs June 30 because its contract has not been renewed.

The University of Maryland Baltimore County said Monday it is partnering with Northrop Grumman Corp. to set up a cybersecurity incubator to lure startup businesses from all over the country to the campus. The campus' research arm will work with the large defense contractor to provide expertise to small startup companies that are offered scholarships to develop their technologies at the university. The companies will work at the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park in Baltimore.

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.