GAO Affirms Northrop Grumman and Raytheon as DD(X) Gold Team

Northrop Grumman Corporation, leader of the DD(X) Gold Team, and Raytheon company said today that they were delighted by the decision of the General Accounting Office (GAO), which validates that an appropriate evaluation process was used when the U.S. Navy selected the Gold Team to complete the system design for the Navy's 21st century surface combatant, DD(X). "Now that this issue is behind us, we can move ahead on this transformational ship program, which is so critical to the Navy, the DoD and the nation," said Kent Kresa, Northrop Grumman chairman and chief executive officer. "We were confident in the Navy's selection process, and are grateful that the GAO so expeditiously acted in validating that the Gold Team's proposal provided the best value for the customer. By acting quickly, we hope the Congress will continue to fully fund the DD(X) program in 2003." "Our goal is to move full speed ahead with the Navy and Northrop Grumman to provide innovative and transformational solutions for the Navy's DD(X) systems integration requirements," said Daniel P. Burnham, Raytheon chairman and chief executive officer. Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems sector will lead the DD(X) system design, engineering prototype development and testing under a $265 million contract awarded to the Gold Team by the Navy on April 29. The Gold Team includes Raytheon and more than 30 of the nation's top engineering and maritime industrial companies. The initial design contract has a total value of approximately $2.9 billion over four years. "We anticipate important contributions from other leading defense companies, including many of our former competitors," said Philip Dur, Northrop Grumman corporate vice president and president of the company's Ship Systems sector. "An essential goal of the DD(X) program has been to bring the best value to the customer and incorporate 'best of breed' solutions from a national pool. Our team remains committed to that goal." The team looks forward to starting design and technology verification work, which will culminate in the construction of a new family of surface combatants. The DD(X) family includes destroyers, cruisers and littoral combat ships. The transformational technologies developed in the DD(X) program will also be backfitted into today's existing fleet of Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers. Key technologies of DD(X) include developing and testing engineering development models for advanced concepts for the gun system, radar suite, integrated power system, vertical launch system and signature management/reduction. The program will also focus on reduced manning with emphasis placed on optimized crew size and high quality of life while minimizing total ownership costs. The initial phase of the program will employ more than 350 Northrop Grumman Ship Systems management, engineering, operations and logistical support personnel over the next four years. Ship Systems will be joined by four other Northrop Grumman sectors -- Newport News, Information Technology, Electronic Systems and Integrated Systems. As electronic systems integrator, Raytheon's Naval & Maritime Integrated Systems (N&MIS) business will be responsible for DD(X) systems engineering, software development and development of combat system equipment. As part of this effort, Raytheon N&MIS will build and test a dual frequency radar suite, an integrated solid-state communication system, a new launcher, an Integrated Undersea Warfare Suite and a multimission total ship computing environment.