Northrop wins $108M upgrade to Air Force crypto systems

Contract is part of intercontinental ballistic mission engineering and manufacturing development program.

Northrop Grumman Corp. will upgrade cryptography systems for the Air Force under a three-year, $108 million contract.

As a result, the contractor will develop and implement cryptography upgrades as part of the intercontinental ballistic missile cryptography upgrade II engineering and manufacturing development program, according to a June 19 Northrop announcement.

The Northrop Grumman-led ICBM prime team is responsible for overall sustainment of the weapon system including development, production, deployment and system modifications, the announcement said.

"This contract completes a major security improvement for the weapon system and provides the Air Force with much improved capabilities," Tony Spehar, vice president and program manager of Northrop Grumman's ICBM Systems business unit, explained in the news release.

This work will take place in Clearfield, Utah, Huntington Beach, Calif., and Colorado.

 Northrop Grumman, of Falls Church, Va., ranks No. 2 on Washington Technology’s 2012 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.