LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Northrop Grumman, an aerospace firm, was moving its headquarters from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. by summer of 2011 to be closer to its key customer, the U.S. government, a newspaper report said on Tuesday.
The decision would leave the region that gave birth to the aerospace industry without a single major military contractor based here, the Los Angeles Times said.
The decision "is seen as a blow to the much-battered regional economy," which has suffered a series of high-profile corporate defections in recent years.
"This is very bad news, a crummy way to get 2010 started," said economist Jack Kyser of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. "It's a prestige type of thing. Whenever a metro area loses a corporate headquarters, it smarts. We can't forget."
All told, Northrop is moving about 300 people from its corporate office in Century City in Southern California, according to the paper.
Northrop joins a parade of other companies that have left in recent years, including Hilton Hotels Corp. of Beverly Hills, Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo, Orange County's Fluor Corp. and Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, according to the paper.
Northrop develops and makes a variety of products, including unmanned aircraft, satellites and nuclear submarines. The Pentagon is its largest customer.
The move came on the first working day for West Virginia native Wesley G. Bush, who succeeded longtime Chief Executive Ronald D. Sugar, who grew up in South Los Angeles and graduated from University of California in Los Angeles, the paper said.
"This is an important move for the company, and it's one that we believe will improve the effectiveness in serving the nation and our customers," Bush said in his first public statement as the company's chief executive. "The proximity to Washington enables us to be a more integrated part of the federal process."
By relocating, Northrop brings its top executives closer to the nation's decision makers on Capitol Hill, as well as U.S. military and intelligence customers, Bush said.
