Commitment to Australia

Industry Partnerships

As Australia’s national security priorities drive new customer requirements for world class capability, rapid technology uptake, sovereign industry capability and resilient supply chains, the importance of collaboration cannot be overstated.

Driven by our commitment to shared success, Northrop Grumman Australia leverages global reach back and collaborates with industry partners from primes to small-and-medium enterprises (SME) to maximise and sustaining sovereign capability and resilient supply chains.

A crucial part of Northrop Grumman Australia’s AIC strategy is building long-term relationships with local industry in support of Commonwealth of Australia (CoA) and Australian Defence Force (ADF) programs, such as the AIR6500 Phase 1 project. Shortlisted as one of two potential strategic partners of the CoA for the design, development and delivery of the ADF’s Joint Air Battle Management System (JABMS), Northrop Grumman Australia is working with 12 leading Australian SMEs to offer the best capabilities developed by our local Defence industry.

Northrop Grumman Australia has also teamed with global and Australian leaders in space communications to bring together technologies and capabilities that will significantly increase Australia’s sovereign space capability in support of JP9102, the ADF’s Satellite Communication System project. Collaborating with Inmarsat, L3Harris, AECOM, Blacktree Technology, EM Solutions and Vocus, the Northrop Grumman Australia team will draw on decades of collective experience to invest in and grow an Australian sovereign satellite communications capability, increase resiliency of military satellite communications for the future battlespace and create jobs across Australia.

Supply Chain

Northrop Grumman Australia recently launched its Australian
Industry Capability (AIC) strategy, a focused approach to maturing
our systems and processes, enabling us to improve outcomes in
growing priority capabilities for Australia. It outlines the
foundational infrastructure and approach that will drive all our AIC
engagements, through a targeted approach to partner
engagements and capability development aligned with our
strategic growth imperatives and priority pursuits.

Importantly, while focusing on industry, we are also embedding
and aligning our academic engagements, enhancing opportunities
for technology transfers and cross program engagements so we
can not only build capability and resilience within the supply chain,
but sustain, mature and grow it in the longer term to establish
genuine sovereign capabilities in Australia. Similarly, through the
Global Supply Chain Agreement signed with the Australian
Department of Defence in 2011, Northrop Grumman is identifying
opportunities for Australian industry to compete within the
company’s global supply chain, with over $60.9m of opportunities
achieved for 30 Small to Medium Enterprises over the last four
years. Supporting supply chain resilience, building sovereign
industrial capability and creating export opportunity is a
fundamental tenet of Northrop Grumman Australia’s AIC strategy.

As an example, we recently signed an agreement with Brisbane based
electronics and engineering company IntelliDesign to
provide design assistance and manufacturing of our sovereign
Secure Communications System (SCS) 200 devices at their
manufacturing plant in Queensland. The partnership builds on a
history of collaboration, with a view to leverage IntelliDesign’s
expertise across future programs and reinforces Northrop
Grumman Australia’s commitment to building a sovereign and
resilient Australian Defence Industry.

Similarly in 2021, Victorian company, AME Systems, achieved certification to produce wire harnesses for the MQ-4C Triton system under the AIC program. Since then they have produced harnesses to be installed on US Navy produced MQ-4C Tritons. The relationship between leveraging AIC opportunities into GSC outcomes are vital and a reflection of the competitiveness of Australia’s industry capability.

Providing some of the world’s most advanced products and
services to the US Government and 25 other countries globally,
Northrop Grumman’s global supply chain offers significant growth
opportunities for Australian businesses.

Investments and Economic Contribution

We are committed to investing in jobs, partnerships and suppliers across Australia. Spending over $1 billion in the Australian economy and supporting almost 1,500 jobs, Northrop Grumman Australia makes significant direct and indirect contributions to the economy as outlined in the recent KPMG report. Our workforce is also growing rapidly, with Northrop Grumman Australia’s employment footprint increasing by 40% in recent years.

Northrop Grumman Australia is committed to developing sovereign capability, through investments such as the new $20 million state-of-the-art systems integration, advanced mission visualisation and demonstration facility, Parallax Labs. Bringing together a distributed systems and software development, integration and test environment with cutting-edge mission visualisation and demonstration capabilities, Parallax Labs represents a critical component of how Northrop Grumman Australia can support projects with complex system architectures and highly integrated technologies. Importantly, it also serves to facilitate the transfer of technology, collaboration and the development of Australian critical technology skills that will benefit Australia’s defence industry now and into the future.

Our newly-modernised Brisbane Maintenance and Modification Centre (BMMC) has been the subject of an additional $20 million investment by Northrop Grumman Australia. The BMMC is now a state of the art $50 million facility located at Brisbane Airport, providing support and maintenance to the RAAF’s KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) aircraft. The modernisation project created 300 local jobs, and directly engaged over 500 people. Continuous through life support work will involve an ongoing workforce of around 100 employees, with the infrastructure capacity for a significant expansion as required for future sustainment work.

Innovation

With decades of experience in delivering complex projects,
Northrop Grumman Australia is directing investment and expertise
to support AIC and Northrop Grumman technology priorities. We
are mentoring small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and aligning
our academic engagements to focus on the future capabilities
Australia will require and where Australian industry innovation can
be leveraged into Northrop Grumman products.

In collaboration with Bondi Partners, Northrop Grumman Australia
launched the Australian Tech and Innovation Showcase in 2022.
This opened a door for SMEs across Australia to pitch their
innovations in advanced autonomous technology, payload
development and digital enterprise solutions. Winners of the
inaugural Showcase, Vai Photonics, Fortifyedge and Nominal
Systems, secured a year-long mentorship program with Northrop
Grumman.

Northrop Grumman Australia supports research and development
across a number of leading Australian universities, including the
Australian National University (ANU), University of Queensland
(UQ) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW). We provide
funding and expertise for research across a range of capabilities
including interferometry, space launch systems, hypersonics, and
satellite-based quantum communications.

We are also participating in the Defence Trailblazer: Concept to
Sovereign Capability program led by the University of Adelaide in
partnership with UNSW, through access to our high performance
computing capability and state-of-the-art Parallax Labs capability,
as well as the iLaunch Trailblazer program led by the University of
Southern Queensland and the Australian National University.

By supporting Australia’s research pipeline across all stages of
technology readiness, Northrop Grumman Australia is facilitating
the innovations necessary to advance a more capable sovereign
defence industry.

Skilling and STEM

Northrop Grumman Australia is collaborating to build an
experienced and innovative workforce with the right skills and
knowledge, at the right time, in the right place. It is an exciting
time for defence industry as we look to deliver complex, innovative
and world leading technology solutions for our customers, but to
deliver this we will need a motivated and skilled workforce to
achieve these outcomes. Consequently, Northrop Grumman is
developing Australia’s talent pipeline by adopting a whole of
education and skilling approach, from early STEM engagement to
university scholarships.

Our strategy focuses on engineering and technology-based
programs and initiatives like CyberTaipan, which excite, engage,
and educate students and serve as professional development
resources for teachers. Our Space Camp initiative is focused on providing an opportunity for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to be exposed to the exciting world of space, including visiting the home
of the James Webb Space Telescope.

We believe that diversity directly fosters innovation, and actively
encourage female participation in STEM fields from an early age
through practical initiatives like the UNSW Canberra’s Young
Women in Engineering (YoWIE) Program and Aviation Australia’s
Female Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (FAME) program.

Through partnerships with local universities, government, not-for-profit
organisations and industry, Northrop Grumman Australia
supports a range of STEM education outreach initiatives and
programs, including scholarships, internships, awards and
competitions. Focusing on critical areas such as aerospace,
aircraft sustainment, cyber, artificial intelligence and space, we are
proud to be inspiring and developing the next generation of
engineers.

Reconciliation

Northrop Grumman Australia started our reconciliation journey by
developing an innovative Reconciliation Action Plan to guide our
responsibility as an employer in closing the gap in the equity of
opportunity for indigenous Australians.

Our work spans building employee cultural awareness, recognition
of indigenous lands on which we operate our business, academic
scholarships and sponsorships and building a pipeline of
indigenous SMEs in our Supply Chain.

Committed to the principles of the Commonwealth’s Indigenous
Procurement Policy, Northrop Grumman Australia is promoting
growth in the indigenous business sector through new supply
chain policies, education and awards and the active engagement
of indigenous suppliers across a range of services.

We recognise a diverse and talented workforce is a key
competitive advantage and believe all children deserve the
opportunity to learn and explore. From high school scholarships
with Yalari, to supporting the ANU’s National Indigenous Summer
School, Northrop Grumman Australia is committed to promoting
educational opportunities for all Australian youth.

This artwork by Indigenous artist Chern’ee Sutton represents Northrop Grumman Australia’s commitment to its Reconciliation Action Plan Journey.

Community

Northrop Grumman Australia recognises the importance of good
corporate citizenship – it is a core Northrop Grumman value and
how we do business. It recognises the contribution of these
organisations to the Australian community, and we are privileged
to play a role.

As part of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, we have
partnerships with a range of organisations that share our values,
providing support to veterans and first responders and facilitating
access to education and health services.

Importantly, we encourage and empower our employees to make
a positive difference in the communities in which they live and
work. This is critical in times of need when our people have
responded to the catastrophic fires of 2020 and more recently the
flooding in Queensland. Northrop Grumman has been proud to
have supported a range of charities that have been key to
recovery from these disastrous events

Our Employee Resource Groups (ERG) lead a range of initiatives
to support causes and issues affecting our community. These
include activities to raise employee awareness and understanding
of topical issues as well as fundraising in support of important
causes.

Northrop Grumman Australia celebrates volunteering and our
people are encouraged to access paid leave each year to
volunteer for a not-for-profit organisation of their choice. Our
teams regularly participate in fitness challenges to raise funds for
mental health and veteran support and our employees give their
time when a community crisis occurs, such as the recent
Australian floods.

Our Defence Veteran community is actively supported to honour
their service to our nation, as well as the Defence Forces served
in other countries. Through the work by our Past & Present Military
Personnel ERG and relationships with Australian War Memorial,
Right Management, Legacy and Soldier On, Northrop Grumman
Australia supports veterans within our workforce and those service
personnel seeking to transition their careers from ADF service to
industry.

Learn more about careers at Northrop Grumman Australia.