Navy to review plans for Northrop change | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com: "Nearly a week after Northrop Grumman Corp. announced its intention to sell or spin off its shipbuilding business, the Navy said Monday that it will weigh in on any prospective new owner and that a foreign company would pose a problem.
The announcement came on the same day Wes Bush, Northrop's CEO, said private-equity firms might be interested in the company's shipbuilding unit, Bloomberg News reported.
'Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is the sole manufacturer and refueler of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and one of two manufacturers of Virginia-class submarines whose work is well-integrated into complex and classified systems in these ships,' said Cmdr. Victor Chen, a Pentagon-based Navy spokesman.
'The Navy will carefully review any plans for a change of ownership to ensure that Newport News Shipbuilding maintains design, maintenance and construction capability for nuclear-powered warships, while protecting national security interests. Foreign ownership would present significant challenges in this regard.'
British-owned BAE Systems PLC is among the companies mentioned by some analysts as a possible interested party"
