“This is a necessary step to access the affordability that will allow us to effectively compete in a very cost conscious market place,” Jim Hart, who handles media relations for Northrop’s aerospace division, told Reuters.
Northrop will offer a voluntary retirement program to about 23,000 employees at all its sites in the aerospace division, said Hart. If necessary, that program will be followed by involuntary layoffs, he added.
Defense contractors, challenged by tightening global budgets and planned US troop withdrawals from the Middle East, are moving to shed non-core divisions and acquire companies with niche technologies to enhance their growth prospects.