Northrop wants to spin off or sell its shipbuilding unit, which despite having a huge backlog of work has struggled to match the returns in other areas.
The region's largest private employer, Northrop Grumman, puts 12, 000 people to work at its Ship Systems unit, up recently but about half the number of employees who worked there in 1977.
Northrop is slimming down on some of its least profitable operations, and could possibly spin out the entire unit which brought in just under one-fifth of revenues last year.