Northrop opens Chandler center

2,500 employees will work on missile systems

As five military parachutists landed on the front lawn, Northrop Grumman unveiled its new Chandler center — home to 2,500 workers focused on missile-defense work and space launches.

The 633,000-square-foot complex, built on a former dairy farm just south of the interchange of Loops 101 and 202, includes more than 400 miles of data cables, required 45 building permits, involved the pouring of 40,000 cubic yards of concrete and employed 400 construction workers at the peak.

In ribbon-cutting ceremonies Tuesday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey lauded it as one of the latest examples of Arizona’s ability to attract “the world’s most innovative companies.” Workers finished construction on the facility in September.

Construction started in April 2018, a few months before Northrop Grumman completed its acquisition of Orbital HK for $7.8 billion. Both companies had worked to increase their military and space businesses. The 47-acre campus is the primary base for Northrop Grumman’s roughly 3,500 Arizona employees, nearly all of whom are in the East Valley.

Workers at the facility build components for space-launch vehicles as well as targets and interceptors for the nation’s defenses against intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“(Americans) don’t worry about ICBM attacks,” said Terry Feehan, a retired Air Force major general who now serves as a Northrop Grumman vice president. “One reason they don’t need to is because of the products we build in Chandler.”

Those products include complex avionics systems “down to the cables” but not the massive motors that propel missiles, he said. Most of the company’s design, development, manufacturing and testing of launch vehicles occurs in Chandler.

The new facility is the home of Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. Willmeng Construction served as general contractor for the complex, which was developed by the Douglas Allred Co.

Northrop Grumman, among the 100 largest nongovernmental employers in Arizona, employs around 80,000 people globally. The corporation is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia.