Rick Scott Welcomes Northrop Grumman Expansion and 1,000 Jobs to Melbourne

Gov. Rick Scott participated in a dedication ceremony on Friday for Northrop Grummans center of excellence, which will create 1,000 jobs. The governor announced in March 2013 that Northrop Grumman was designating five centers of excellence around the country, with two of them being housed in Florida. The Melbourne location will serve as the manned aircraft design center of excellence.

With Floridas incredible workforce, low tax environment and support of manufacturing, we were able to secure a huge victory for Florida families with Northrop Grummans centers of excellence," said Scott. "The establishment of the Melbourne facility will create 1,000 new jobs which is a huge victory for area families. While this is an incredible victory, we arent slowing down. This session were fighting to create even more jobs and opportunities by cutting $500 million in taxes and fees for Florida families and job creators.

The designation of Northrop Grummans Melbourne site as its center of excellence for the design of manned aircraft is a tremendous opportunity for the state, said Gray Swoope, secretary of commerce and president and CEO of Enterprise Florida. Florida is home to one of the nations largest defense and homeland security industries and this center will make that presence even stronger. We are thrilled to have this facility and these new positions, and look forward to the resulting innovation and collaboration.

Northrop Grumman employs more than 1,200 people in Melbourne, and estimates growing by an additional 1,000 employees over the next four years as a result of the designation of the site as a center of excellence. The company recently broke ground on a 200,000-square-foot building as its current campus adjacent to the Melbourne International Airport and is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2014.