Falls Church, Va. • Northrop Grumman is buying Orbital ATK for about $7.8 billion, with a backdrop of rising global tensions accelerating big deals in the defense sector.
Both companies have a major presence in Utah, particularly Orbital ATK, which has eight facilities in the Beehive State. Northrop Grumman has four offices with a lengthy involvement in military defense work.
Earlier this month, United Technologies said it would pay $22.75 billion for defense contractor Rockwell Collins, which also has operations in Salt Lake City.
Congress is expected to pump $700 billion into the Pentagon budget as the U.S. responds to growing hostility from North Korea.
The U.S. military on Monday flew advanced bombers and stealth jets over the Korean Peninsula and near Japan, three days after North Korea fired a missile over Japan.
Saudi Arabia has a pending deal to acquire $500 million in precision-guided munitions from the U.S., part of a proposed $110 billion arms package to Riyadh, which is enmeshed in a civil war in Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition, which is supported by the United States, has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015.
The acquisition of Orbital would strengthen Northrop Grumman’s capabilities in military aircraft technology and missile defense. Orbital ATK makes launch vehicles and their propulsion systems, missile technology, defense electronics, precision weapons, armament systems and ammunition. It also builds up Northrop’s space operations with Orbital’s satellites and advanced aerospace structures.
Orbital ATK has teams working on propulsions systems at its Bacchus facility in Magna, at the Falcon Hill business park connected to Hill Air Force Base, and in Promontory, where it also has its test and research services division. In Box Elder County, Promontory is the site of explosive solid rocket-motor tests featured periodically in the news media.
Logan is home to an Orbital ATK military systems office, while the company has its aerospace structures unit and its component refurbishment center in Clearfield. Orbital ATK’s space systems division is located in a second office in Magna, according to the company website.
Rocket motors produced by Orbital ATK are used on the ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptor, the Trident II D-5 and Minuteman III strategic missiles as well as NASA’s space launch system and its propulsion systems are employed in the Pegasus, Antares and Minotaur rockets.
Northrop Grumman has been a presence in Utah since 1968. Its facilities in Clearfield, Ogden, Salt Lake City and Hill AFB are focused on building parts of intercontinental ballistic missiles that the company maintains “ensure 24/7 mission availability, reliability, readiness and affordability.”
Orbital ATK shareholders will receive $134.50 per share, a 22 percent premium to the company’s Friday closing price of $110.04. The deal’s total value is approximately $9.2 billion, including debt.
Shares of Orbital ATK surged 22 percent at the opening bell Monday in a year when the stock of most major defense contractors have hit all-time highs as clashes escalate.
Rockwell Collins Inc., Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Honeywell International Inc., have reached unprecedented heights in 2017.
Northrop Grumman Corp., which is based in Falls Church, said that after the deal closes, Orbital ATK Inc., based in Dulles, Va., will become a separate sector within its business operations.
The boards of both companies have approved the deal and it’s expected to close in the first half of next year.
Tribune reporter Mike Gorrell contributed to this article.