Northrop Grumman laying off 120 workers in Lake Charles

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Northrop Grumman is laying off 120 workers in Lake Charles, company officials have confirmed.

Northrop Grumman spokesman Jared Krull said the company notified the 120 workers on Tuesday and that May 5 will be their last day.

The layoffs are a result of the U.S. Air Force’s decision to retire the Joint STARS fleet, he said.

”That was a pretty big chunk of the work we did here,” Krull said.

Joint STARS aircraft are used by the military in surveillance of moving targets on the ground, but the fleet is expected to be retired in the mid 2020′s and will not be replaced, according to Military.com. The military is working to move to new surveillance systems.

The fleet will be in service through 2024, Krull said.

There are 524 current employees at Lake Charles, Krull said.

Northrop Grumman employees were placed into new positions or moved, if possible, he said. The company held an internal job fair in Lake Charles where employees were able to interview with several other Northrop Grumman locations for open positions.

The company did not have to make reductions at other facilities around the country.

When asked what the retirement of the Joint STARS fleet means for the future of the company, Krull said that while “it’s never a good thing to lose people because of lost business or work,” Northrop Grumman still has a lot of long-term contracts.

Included in those is a new contract to work on the Navy E-6B Mercury program.