COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., April 27, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has launched its Small Business Program for Engineering, Experimentation and Deployment (SPEED) effort in the Colorado Springs area in conjunction with the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce 2011 Small Business Outreach event. Northrop Grumman is a gold corporate sponsor of the event held April 25-26.
SPEED is designed to mentor small businesses in developing and deploying technology into current and future defense programs. SPEED allows small businesses to take advantage of Northrop Grumman's network of C2 Futures Laboratories for concept development and evolving prototype demonstrations into mature capabilities. They can test their technologies and solutions in a real-world environment, which should reduce risk and speed time to deployment.
This is the seventh annual event held by the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and is attended by government officials and hundreds of small business participants.
"The sponsorship of the 2011 Small Business Outreach will help us to grow our SPEED effort that has a similar mission to connect small business capabilities with defense program contracts," said Mike Twyman, vice president of integrated command, control, communications and intelligence systems for Northrop Grumman Information Systems. "SPEED will work in tandem with our open systems labs to provide a plug-and-play, near-operational environment for creating cost-effective, advanced capabilities for the warfighter.
"Our C2 Futures Lab in Colorado Springs is focused on cross-domain solutions for space, air and cyber operations," said Twyman. "Those capabilities drive the need for complementary, niche innovations in software development, software/hardware integration and information assurance."
The Colorado Springs lab is part of a nationwide network of research and development nodes linking capabilities in state-of-the-art cybersecurity, command and control applications, information systems and business innovation. The lab's open systems infrastructure provides a framework that encourages commercial product advancement and competition, technology insertion and integration.
Small businesses interested in signing up for the Northrop Grumman SPEED program should contact Lee Whitt at lee.whitt@ngc.com or Mike Schissel at michael.schissel@ngc.com.
Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information.