Northrop awaits homeland decision

The government is days away from selecting one of several defense-aerospace firms - L.A.-based Northrop Grumman among them - to develop technology that would monitor the nation's northern and southern borders. Also in the hunt for what would be a multi-billion dollar contract are Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon and cell phone maker Ericsson, according to a P1 Washington Post story.

All year, the nation's largest military contractors have been locked in intense competition to team with the government on a program that gives the private sector unusually wide sway over a critical national security issue. Michael P. Jackson, the deputy director of the Homeland Security Department, told the competing firms earlier this year he wanted them "to come back and tell us how to do our business."

The resulting proposals are the latest incarnation of decades' worth of attempts to use technology to create a virtual fence along the border. So far, none have been successful. Recent initiatives have ended with cameras that failed to work in extreme temperatures and millions of dollars wasted.

But with immigration legislation stalled in Congress, Homeland Security officials are gambling that this new effort -- known as the Secure Border Initiative -- will be their best hope of cutting the flow of illegal immigrants into the country.

Northrop is pushing its unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. A couple of the competitors say UAVs aren't reliable because they can't fly in bad weather and are very expensive. After losing out to Lockeed in the big NASA contract to build the next space capsule, Northrop could use this one. Stock lost just a hair today.