Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation's Propulsion Systems - Promontory Division, based in Corinne, Utah, is a manufacturer of advanced rocket motors, energetic materials, and propulsion components that operates as a prime contractor (59% of recent awards) and subcontractor (41%) on defense and space programs for the Department of Defense and NASA. The division is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation and competes in full-and-open procurements without set-aside designations, reflecting its status as a large established defense contractor.

The Propulsion Systems - Promontory Division's capability portfolio centers on solid rocket motor design, production, and sustainment; specialized energetic materials including CL-20 high-energy explosives and ammonium perchlorate; guided missile safe and arm test set repair; and advanced manufacturing processes for rocket motor components such as tape wrap process control and fin cutting. Representative prime work includes a $8.661 million delivery order from Air Force Materiel Command for MJU-62 countermeasures (October 2026), a $8.977 million cost-plus-fixed-fee task order for predictive life assessment of Minuteman III Stage 1 motors with propellant grain cracks (September 2025), and a $518,818 purchase order from Naval Air Warfare Center for CL-20 explosives (January 2026). The division also holds a $5.762 million Other Transaction Agreement under the Cornerstone OTA initiative for prototype development of tape wrap process control and fin cutting capabilities, funded by Army Research Development and Engineering Command's Strengthening America's Manufacturing & Industrial Base program.

Customer concentration skews heavily toward the Air Force and NASA. The top five customer agencies account for 76% of recent awards by count, led by Air Force Materiel Command (19 awards, $2.76 billion combined potential value), followed by Army PEO Missiles and Space (12 awards), Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory (10 awards, $229 thousand), Naval Air Warfare Center (9 awards, $1.2 million), and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (7 awards, $7.91 billion). While Air Force awards dominate by volume, NASA's dollar share is anchored by the Space Launch System production and operations contract — a multi-billion-dollar vehicle that drives the division's potential-value rankings despite fewer total awards. Recent sub-awards include work under Boeing on SLS Stages Production and Evolution (EHM) and propulsion elements, General Dynamics-Ots on Hydra-70 rocket system production, and Battelle Memorial Institute on carbon/carbon industrial base expansion.

The division places work under several Air Force IDVs: Indefinite Delivery Contract FA821421D0001 (13 task orders, $372.3 million combined potential value), Indefinite Delivery Contract FA865020D5703 (7 task orders), Basic Ordering Agreement FA821320G0002 (6 task orders, $1.3 million), and Indefinite Delivery Contract FA821321D0002 (3 task orders, $14.1 million). These vehicles support Minuteman III sustainment, rocket motor testing, and related propulsion subsystem services.

Activity has grown substantially year over year — two awards in 2022 to eighteen in 2024 — with twelve awards carrying combined potential value of $55.6 million reaching completion inside the next twenty-four months and facing recompete exposure. Across SCI-reportable federal service contracts above the $150,000 threshold, the division invoiced $33.1 million between FY2022 and FY2023 (no FY2024 data in SCI). Workforce scaled down from 36.2 FTEs in FY2022 to 19.5 FTEs in FY2023, tracking with a decline in SCI-reportable hours. On federal service contracts captured in SCI, median government-paid rates ran around $192.63/hr, with rates spanning from roughly $186/hr at the tenth percentile through $199/hr at the ninetieth percentile. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors accounted for an average 22% share of total contractor hours, with four named subs reported.

The division's top NAICS categories are engineering services (21 awards), explosives manufacturing (16 awards), and physical science research and development (11 awards), with PSC concentrations in bulk explosives (10 awards), professional engineering support (10 awards), and pyrotechnics (4 awards). The division functions primarily as a self-delivery prime, building its own technical teams rather than relying on extensive subcontracting, though Boeing, General Dynamics-Ots, and Battelle appear regularly as prime contractors on SLS, Hydra-70, and materials-research work where the division supplies propulsion components and materials. Minuteman III sustainment represents the division's single largest ongoing program footprint, with multiple task orders under the Air Force Materiel Command's $2.311 billion IDV through November 2039 and subcontractors including Long-Lok LLC, Safety Management Services Inc., Millcreek Engineering Co, and Komar Industries providing component and engineering support.