Northrop has 150 job openings in San Diego

Written by Gary Robbins
12:56 p.m., Nov. 1, 2011
Updated 5:27 p.m.

The growing market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has created 150 job openings at Northrop Grumman's San Diego area plants, where the company develops such drones as Global Hawk, Fire Scout and the X-47B, a tailless plane designed to operate from aircraft carriers.

"These are new jobs, not replacement positions," said Warren Comer, a Northrop spokesman. "And most of the openings are for engineers."

The Pentagon is scheduled to cut the defense budget by $350 billion to $400 billion over the next decade, a figure that could roughly double if Congress doesn't come up with adequate ways to reduce spending.

But the Pentagon has been investing in UAVs, which are comparatively inexpensive to operate and have been used effectively in such places as Afghanistan and Iraq. The aircraft also can be operated without risking the life of a pilot.

Defense analysts at the Teal Group (background) say that annual worldwide spending on UAVs could double to $11.3 billion within a decade.

Northrop employs about 4,000 people at its plants in Rancho Bernardo, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Kearny Mesa and Mission Valley. About 2,200 of those people work on unmanned systems like Global Hawk, a high-altitude, long-endurance drone that's been broadly used for reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence gathering, as well as for collecting scientific information. Much of the company's current growth involves an upgraded version of the Fire Scout, a "robo-helicopter" that is being designed to fly from any Navy ship that can take aircraft.

Northrop has long been one of the region's biggest defense contractors. The Defense Department awarded Northrop's San Diego-area operation almost $1.5 billion in contracts in fiscal 2009, roughly the same amount that went to the local plants run by SAIC and General Dynamics. General Atomics and local subsidiaries brought in $1.3 billion, says Defense News.

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