An East Valley company has won a defense contract worth up to roughly $4 billion.
Northrop Grumman in Chandler has teamed up with Raytheon in Tucson to build a new missile-defense system for protecting the United States.
The Defense Department says the contract is worth at least $2.6 billion, and there’s another $1.3 billion in potential options.
The money is for development of the military’s “Next Generation Interceptor.” The Pentagon wants a ground-based weapon that can head off long-range chemical, biological or nuclear missile-attacks on the U.S.
Alabama is headquarters for the Northrop Grumman and Raytheon management team. The interceptor-project will be fed by big operations in Arizona. And the missile-defense system they build competes against a design by another two-company team, which won a slightly smaller federal contract.
