Report: China building electromagnetic pulse weapons for use against U.S. carriers - Washington TimesThe medical research also appeared useful for China's military in making sure that EMP weapons used against Taiwan and “any vulnerable U.S. [aircraft carrier] would not push the U.S. across the nuclear-response threshold,” the report said.

This can't be good - the Chinese are working on limited EMP weapons for use on U.S. aircraft carriers defending Taiwan with the idea that such a weapon not cause the U.S. to respond with nuclear weapons. 

Northrop Grumman aircraft systems have electronics likely to be affected by EMP weapon effects - not good for the pilot flying the F/A-18 or F-35. This is in addition to not having the systems on the aircraft carrier working - BIG problem for all concerned.

The China wants to take back the renegade province of Taiwan by force if not for fear of the United Startes stepping in to defend Taiwan's sovereignty.

The once SECRET report indicates that

***...The medical research also appeared useful for China's military in making sure that EMP weapons used against Taiwan and "any vulnerable U.S. [aircraft carrier] would not push the U.S. across the nuclear-response threshold," the report said....***

See more at:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/21/beijing-develops-radiation-weapons/

Liberals see opportunity for big cuts in defense - Washington Times

This cannot be anything but BAD news for Northrop Grumman. The Liberals want to HUGE cuts in defense spending. 

Supposedly they are addressing the budget deficit by cutting back on one of the six things in the preamble of the constitution, i.e. "...in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity..." See Article I, Section 8 for the particulars. Notice that there's nothing in regards to bailing out large banks and car companies that are "too big to fail". 

The Liberals want to cut back on the constitutionally required capability of the government while maintaining entitlements for others.

This is bad news for Northrop Grumman because it is primarily a defense contractor - Northrop Grumman builds weapon systems for the government to kill people and break things.

See more at:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/18/liberals-see-opportunity-for-big-cuts-in-defense/

Article: Northrop Claim to Save $600 Million in Shipyard Sale Is Questioned by U.S. 2 hours ago

It seems that Northrop Grumman is not golden regarding it's claim of how much money they are saving and how much it should be reimbursed for spinning off it's shipyard operations 

Seems that there a problem with the government's audit and it makes Northrop Grumman look like cooked the books just to get a few dollars ($300 million) from the government. 

See

Northrop Claim to Save $600 Million in Shipyard Sale Is Questioned by U.S. 2 hours ago - Bloomberg

Get #1 rated SkyGrid news app for free to follow all of your interests in real time

Top 8 Lies That Bosses Tell | BNET

How many of thee have YOU heard at Northrop Grumman?

NOT saying that managers LIE, however, a Northrop Grumman Human Resources guy told me, "he may have misstated the facts based on overly optimistic projections."

Human Resources do work for the COMPANY (NOT the employes) and are tasked with maintaining non-violence against management and employee productivity.

See -
http://m.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/top-8-lies-that-bosses-tell/16434

==================================
Michael J. Jue (mjue@yahoo.com)
Phone: (323) 207-6583
FAX: (888) 306-8454
Snail Mail: P.O.Box 584, Glendale, CA 91209

"To rely on rustics and not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of virtues."

- Sun Tzu

Article: L.A. to D.C.: $280 a mile at Northrop Grumman...

Northrop Grumman is in the news - this describes the GENEROSITY of the company is in relocating it's big executives from Century City to the new headquarters in Virginia. 

CFO James F. Palmer, for example, is getting $750 000 cash for relocation costs - roughly &280 for each mile of the 2,677 mile move. 

Northrop Grumman is being VERY GOOD to it's employees that it does NOT lay off!

See the article:

L.A. to D.C.: $280 a mile at Northrop Grumman... - Footnoted.Org

Top-secret clearance checks falsified - Washington Times

There are several projects at Northrop Grumman that require that the employee has a Top Secret security clearance.

According to this article the government has been outsourcing the background investigation to people.

Problem: some of these folks will falsely state that an interview has been conducted when no such interview had occurred so as to fraudulently take money from the government for no work done!

See

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/21/top-secret-clearance-checks-falsified/

Article: PARIS: Global Hawk takes Washington beating

The Northrop Grumman Global Hawk is in the news again - despite the headline ("takes Washington beating"), as long as the Global Hawk doesn't go TOO MUCH over cost the government will support the Global Hawk program. 

Northrop Grumman has already promised that will it improve the reliability and effectiveness of the Global Hawk. The Department of Defense has already determined that the current Global Hawk is over-cost, unreliable, and ineffective. 

Good job, Northrop Grumman!

See the article:

PARIS: Global Hawk takes Washington beating - Flightglobal

Article: Remote Control Killing of Fun and Profit

Northrop Grumman gets a nice mention in this article on remote killing in a video game format by people in air-conditioned comfort far removed from the actual carnage. 

See:

Remote Control Killing of Fun and Profit - Pacific Free Press

BIG WIN: Pentagon certifies Northrop's Global Hawk program

BIG WIN for Northrop Grumman Global Hawk program - it was certified by the Department of Defense DESPITE being over-cost, not reliable enough, nor effective in it's mission. 

See:

Pentagon certifies Northrop's Global Hawk program - Reuters

Article: Pentagon Says_Northrop's Global Hawk Drone Isn't Effective

This is not good.

Northrop Grumman is no longer the little aircraft company that delivered products on schedule and under cost that performed as as well or better than promised.

The Global Hawk is over cost, delayed in schedule, and exhibits less than good performance and reliability.

Here's a quote from this article:

"'...I remember when unmanned aerial vehicles like this were pitched as being cheaper and more effective than manned platforms. Now the DoD appears to be saying that this is not the case in either situation, which I'd say is a real disappointment for Northrop,' Stallard said. This is their major UAV platform, after all."

Read the article yourself:

Pentagon Says Northrop's Global Hawk Drone Isn't 'Effective' - www.businessweek.mobi

Marriage culture key to economy, study says - Washington Times

PROBLEM.

If this idea is true, then this country will not do well economically - I saw the story on there being more unmarried people than married people, a new and growing trend.

See:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/31/marriage-culture-key-to-economy-study-says/

Advisers urge military to rely less on drones, more on expertise - Washington Times

The problem with relying on human agents for intel is they LIE, sometimes unintentionally EXAGGERATE what they see and hear, or just say what they think you want to hear.

The drone, on the other hand, has no such problems in reporting what is apparently there as detected by it's sensors.

ALSO, Northrop Grumman does not manufacture human agents - it builds unmanned air vehicles.

See:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/31/advisers-urge-military-to-rely-less-on-drones-more/

Blue Angels commander steps down after subpar performance - CNN.com

Unusual!

The Blue Angels commander took full responsibility for a subpar performance instead of blaming it on the equipment. (Northrop Grumman builds a major portion of the F/A-18 aircraft used by the Blue Angels. )

The article is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/27/virginia.blue.angels/index.html

Bombers: Pentagon official visits aerospace execs to discuss bomber planes - latimes.com

Northrop Grumman still wants to build long range stealthy bombers.

Now Boeing and Lockheed also want to build long range stealthy bombers.

Seems that the US Air Force thinks it's time for an upgrade.

The US Air Force now has fifty year old B-52's, thirty year old B-1s, and 20 B-2s -  and want a newer set of bombers.

This is a potential $55 billion contract.

See the article in the L.A. Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-fi-new-bomber-20110522,0,4695480.story

 

Article: Northrop Grumman to Cut Jobs on Defense Spending Slowdown

Good news for the stockholders, not so good news for the affected employees. 

By reducing employees, Northrop Grumman lessens potential losses due to paying out more than it takes in because of the slowdown in define spending. Instead of paying its employees a slightly lower salary Northrop Grumman prefers laying people off. See the Four Percent Solution that I previously suggested where a 4% reduction in costs is achieved with a 4% pay cut instead of a 4% (500 people) lay-off. 

Northrop Grumman to Cut Jobs on Defense Spending Slowdown - Seeking Alpha

Article: Northrop Grumman Aims To Take On Predato

Northrop Grumman wants a piece of the unmanned air vehicle market - see

Northrop Grumman Aims To Take On Predator - Aviation Week

JSF Costs the UK Navy - "Soaring cost of our new carriers doubles to 10billion after equipment bungle" | Mail Online

The Brits are one of the nations that is buying the JSF being built by Lockheed and Northrop Grumman.

In order to accommodate the JSF fighter, an aircraft carrier originally designed for the Harrier jump jet had to be modified with catapults and traps, doubling the original estimated cost.

See the ink:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381725/Soaring-cost-new-carriers-doubles-10billion-equipment-bungle.html

I am sure that with clever and tricky analysis, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed can show that in the "long run" the UK navy will save money, and not spend more money than they would have if they had gone with the Harrier jump jets instead of the JSF.

We Don't Need No Badasses

Recently I put up a blog post consisting of nothing more than the words "EPIC badass" and a link to some newspaper in Nepal about an incident of epic badassery in India:

A Gurkha soldier, who fought 40 train robbers, to be felicitated in the Republic Day of India

Both Nepal and India are considered "third world" by many Americans, so their standards of what's "good and right" are different than Americans, right?

In America, we are told by the police not to fight criminals, but to be good witnesses by observing and reporting.

All this gurkha did was to standup single-handed against 40 train robbers when they started to strip a girl of her clothing to rape her. Her mom and dad asked for help (evidently they did not want their daughter raped), and this gurkha soldier fought the train robbers, killing three and injuring eight.

ON THE OTHER HAND, we recently had an incident in America (Maryland) at a McDonalds.

A transgender woman was stomped and beaten for several minutes until she went into convulsions.

See Video Shows Woman Being Beaten At Baltimore Co. McDonald’s.

Evidently what's "good and right" in America is to videotape somebody getting stomped and beaten, and then posting the video on your Facebook account where it can then go viral.

Doesn't matter that the videographer was an employee of McDonalds; he was laughing hysterically while doing the video, and even warned the attackers that the police was being called after people saw the victim go into convulsions. He was observing and reporting.

The only thing remotely resembling a badass was the older woman who tried to stop the attack and got punched in the face for her trouble.

McDonalds is doing major damage-control and P.R., as their employees just did the American thing, to "observe and report". The McDonalds employee observed and reported by posting the video on his Facebook account.

We don't need no badassery in America.

Video: Supersonic F/A-18C Hornet bursts into flame on aircraft carrier flight deck | ZDNet

Great video!

EXCELLENT example of why the US Navy prefers a twin engine aircraft - if one engine breaks, the pilot still has the second engine with which to fly back to home base.

"Home base" is usually an aircraft carrier, and the alternative, the waters of the ocean, is a BAD place to land.

An engine breaks and catches fire. The pilot brings theF/A-18C back to the carrier where the deck crew very promptly handles the fire.

Check this out:

http://m.zdnet.com/blog/government/video-supersonic-fa-18c-hornet-bursts-into-flame-on-aircraft-carrier-flight-deck/10276?tag=nl.e620

Northrop Grumman's Naval Death Star

Good news for Northrop Grumman stockholders!

See the Motley Fool's take on Northrop Grumman's Star Wars weapon developed for the US Navy -

Northrop Grumman's Naval Death Star - The Motley Fool