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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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BOEHLERT CUTS RIBBON ON NEW NORTHROP GRUMMAN FACILITY IN NEW HARTFORD
Northrop Grumman Anticipates 10% Employment Growth Each Year
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. – U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-New Hartford), joined by Wood Parker, President of Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Rome Lab Director Dr. Donald Hanson, and a host of local business leaders today announced the grand opening of a new 8,000 sq. ft. facility for Northrop Grumman in New Hartford that will support research and development technologies to improve communication capabilities for our nation's war fighters.
"This is an exciting and wonderful event for Northrop Grumman and the Mohawk Valley," Boehlert said. "This new facility translates into more high-tech jobs and an boost to our local economy. Furthermore, the type of technology that will be further developed at this site has great potential for our military and our entire society. I am convinced that the development of this technology will make our military more effective by improving communications between air and ground forces."
Boehlert was instrumental in securing $1.2 million in the FY 2006 Defense Appropriations bill for Rome Lab for the Information for Global Reach project (IFGR)-a joint project between Rome Lab, Northrop-Grumman and several other local small businesses. The funds helped enable the creation of a net-centric communications test-bed at Rome Lab for further research in airborne networking. This type of technology has been in development at Rome Lab for a long time, and the funding secured by Boehlert allowed Rome Lab to complete research and transition airborne networking technology to use in the field. "The potential for this field is limitless - and I'm proud it all started right here in the Mohawk Valley with the team of world-class researchers at Rome Lab and Northrop Grumman," Boehlert said.
Northrop-Grumman's new facility will support research and development of Joint Capability for Airborne Networking (JCAN). JCAN is currently deployed onboard the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft in support of communications among U.S. Air Force and Army personnel deployed in the Middle East. In addition to providing communications support for military forces, JCAN also has potential homeland security applications, particularly for interoperability issues facing first responders.
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