Photo Release -- Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus Visits Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding...

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Thu Oct 8, 2009 5:44pm EDT

Photo Release -- Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus Visits Northrop Grumman
Shipbuilding - Gulf Coast Facility in Pascagoula

PASCAGOULA, Miss., Oct. 8, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- United States Secretary of
the Navy Ray Mabus toured Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Shipbuilding
sector's shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., today.

A photo accompanying this release is available at
http://media.globenewswire.com/noc/

"The most impressive thing here is the quality of the workforce," Secretary
Mabus said. "And the ships, these platforms - LHDs, LPDs and DDGs - are some of
the most crucial platforms the Navy has. They allow the Navy to do amazingly
flexible things like special forces operations, missile work and humanitarian
assistance."

As part of the visit, Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding briefed Secretary Mabus on
its current work and capabilities across all of the company's Gulf Coast
facilities. He also toured various ships under construction, including the
Aegis-guided missile destroyer Gravely (DDG 107), the amphibious transport dock
ship San Diego (LPD 22), and the U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter
Waesche (WMSL 751). Secretary Mabus met with shipbuilders and concluded his tour
with a stop at Dewey (DDG 105), an Aegis destroyer delivered to the Navy on
August 17. DDG 105 is the third ship delivered of four in 2009 by Northrop
Grumman Shipbuilding - Gulf Coast.

"One of my focuses is to make sure that we build enough ships and that we have
the ships to be a global Navy," Secretary Mabus said. "Because no matter how
good the capability of each ship, they can't be in two places at one time."

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding - Gulf Coast facilities' current work includes
contracts to build DDG 51-class Aegis destroyers, LPD 17-class amphibious
transport dock ships, U.S. Coast Guard National Security cutters and the U.S.
Navy's newest amphibious assault ship, America (LHA 6). Northrop Grumman
Shipbuilding - Gulf Coast has built and delivered all five USS Tarawa (LHA 1)
class ships, as well as all eight USS Wasp (LHD 1) class ships, including Makin
Island (LHD 8) in May. LHA 6 will be an aviation-maximized ship for U.S. Marine
expeditionary warfare replacing LHA 1.

In addition to construction of ships, the company's Gulfport facility
specializes in composite shipbuilding and is currently building the deckhouse
for the U.S. Navy DDG 1000 class of surface combatants as well as the composite
masts for the LPD 17 class.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000
employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace,
electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to
government and commercial customers worldwide.

-0-
CONTACT:  Bill Glenn
          Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding
          (228) 935-3972
          william.glenn@ngc.com
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