The Northrup Grumman Space Park located in Redondo Beach, CA will be cutting another 550 employees, marking the 2nd round of job cuts this year. The layoff that occurred earlier this year resulted in 600 employees being redeployed across the company. Northrup Grumman employs approximately 100,000 employees, one-third belonging to the company’s space sector. The company did not specify the reasons behind these job cuts, and they come as a surprise given that company executives have reported growth in the company’s space business. Speculation about these layoffs resides with a recent program cancellation by the U.S. Space Force. This program was a multi-billion dollar military communications satellite project. Other speculations include NASA programs with decreased revenue as potential contributors to the workforce reductions. The company’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) was filed with state and local government agencies. Workers will supposedly be given adequate time to prepare for termination.
While not immediately applicable to space cybersecurity, this new article does raise space cyber concerns. Northrup Grumman is a defense contractor, and their space programs are tailored to the United States military. Given that the company executives report positively regarding their space business, it is interesting to see how finances are not sufficient to maintain employees at the company’s most significant space site. If Northrup lacks the capital to keep their personnel employed, then they are surely lacking the capital to invest in space cybersecurity. We have learned in this class how space cyber is typically the last concern for those who build and maintain space systems. I would hope that most companies have their employees as one of their top concerns. If Northrup is struggling to maintain what should be a forefront concern, then I wouldn’t be surprised if space cyber is something they are even remotely considering investing money into. Given that Northrup builds military assets, this is a major concern. Hopefully, other major space companies such as Boeing and Lockheed are in better financial standing to begin investing in space cyber. If not, the DOD will need to force these types of requirements onto their satellite contractors.