Northrop CEO称公司有望获得Golden Dome防御系统相当份额

Northrop Grumman Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kathy Warden said the Trump administration’s Golden Dome space defense system was becoming “very tangible” for defense contractors and that her company will end up with a “decent share” of a program that may eventually cost more than $1 trillion.

“We have an architecture, we have programs — and we are executing on those programs,” Warden said at a newsmaker event hosted by Bloomberg News on Tuesday in Washington.

“It is a many-company effort,” Warden said. “But we are a company that can participate in almost every aspect of the architecture. So we do expect to have a decent share at the end of the day.”

The program marks one of the most ambitious efforts to develop space-based missile defense since Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. One of its big challenges is that the technology for space-based interceptors — which sit at the heart of the program — is largely unproven.

Warden said space-based interceptor technology has advanced and “is much more affordable today” than in past years.

Warden said that the major US defense firm was committed to providing the Pentagon with more than 100 B-21 bombers and had invested to expand production capacity. She also said growing geopolitical tensions and active conflicts — from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the US and Israeli war against Iran in the Middle East — were fueling a global defense spending boom.

Earlier this month, the company announced more than $3 billion in multiyear agreements with the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin Corp. to accelerate production of critical missile technologies.

The agreements cover about $2 billion in work tied to Lockheed’s most advanced Patriot interceptor missile, including becoming a second source for solid rocket motors. The other $1 billion is for components related to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor system over the next seven years.

“We are seeing the most robust demand environment — not just in the United States but globally — that we’ve seen in a very long time, and it is driven by this broader threat landscape,” she said. “The Middle East has been a strong source of demand and is at an elevated level now, even considering recent events.”

Northrop has also been moving to expand production capacity. The company said it has opened more than 20 new facilities and added more than 2 million square feet of manufacturing space across the US over the past two years as it prepares for higher demand.

Northrop’s portfolio spans some of the Pentagon’s highest-priority programs, including the B-21 bomber, Sentinel nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile program, missile defense including Golden Dome, advanced weapons and national security space systems.