Northrop Grumman subsidiary scores $3.5B Navy contract
Northrop Grumman Systems, a subsidiary of Falls Church aerospace and defense giant Northrop Grumman, has been awarded a $3.549 billion contract by the Navy to engineer and manufacture new nuclear aircraft, according to announcements from the Department of Defense and the Navy last week. E-130J jets will take the place of the Nav[...]
GDIT wins $5.57B contract to upgrade military communications system
Falls Church-based General Dynamics Information Technology, a business unit of Reston Fortune 100 defense contractor General Dynamics, has won a $5.57 billion contract from the Air Force Mission Partner Capabilities Office, it announced Friday. Awarded in November, the single-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contr[...]
Smithfield to form new hog production company ahead of IPO
Smithfield Foods has inked a deal with VisionAg, an affiliate of North Carolina’s HD3 Farms, to start a new hog production business early next year as the meat producer gears up to go public, the company announced Friday. Smithfield, a giant in packaged meats and pork products, will provide 28,000 sows to the new company, [...]
Big tech company to buy power from Va.’s first onshore wind farm
Even as political winds shift in Washington, D.C., a long-delayed onshore wind farm in Botetourt County might finally be sailing to completion. Charlottesville-based Apex Clean Energy announced Wednesday that it has reached a deal for Google to purchase the full capacity of Rocky Forge Wind, a wind farm the Charlottesville compa[...]
World’s first commercial fusion power plant planned for Chesterfield
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Massachusetts-based fusion energy company, plans to build the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant in Chesterfield County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday. “It’s a nearly $3 billion capital investment, paying taxes, and it’s a bunch of really high-tec[...]
Hundreds pack into Caesars Virginia on opening day
Hundreds of people descended upon Danville’s Main Street Tuesday to celebrate the opening of the $800 million Caesars Virginia, the third permanent casino to open in the state. Caesars didn’t shortchange on spectacle for the first day. A faux Roman legionary struggled to climb out of a Rolls-Royce to join Vegas-style[...]
Business Facilities names Virginia 2024 State of the Year
Business Facilities has named Virginia its 2024 State of the Year, recognizing the state’s business environment and economic development success, the publication announced Monday. The award comes in the same year as Virginia’s sixth No. 1 ranking as CNBC’s Top State for Business, awarded in July. Virginia previ[...]
Va. plays key role in McKinsey $650M opioid settlement
Global management firm McKinsey & Co. filed an agreement in Virginia on Friday to pay the federal government $650 million in a five-year deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice focused on opioid abuse. The Virginia attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) collaborated with U.S. a[...]
JMU receives $2.5M gift for new library wing
James Madison University has received a $2.5 million gift for the new wing of its Carrier Library. Alexandria residents Stan and Rosemary Jones provided the donation, which the Harrisonburg public university announced in late November. A 1954 physics and math alumnus of what was then Madison College, Stan worked for McLean-based[...]
New dockworker strike threat looms for Port of Virginia
Shippers in Hampton Roads are bracing for a renewed dockworker strike in mid-January after contract negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance stalled in November. More than 45,000 dockworkers walked off their jobs for three days starting Oct. 1 at ports from Maine[...]
Micron gets $275M in federal funding for Manassas expansion
Micron Technology is set to receive up to $275 million in federal funding to expand its manufacturing plant in Manassas, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Commerce has signed a preliminary, nonbinding agreement for the funding as part of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, legislation War[...]
Earle-Sears, Spanberger talk biz credentials in Va. Chamber forum appearances
They didn’t meet face-to-face, but the presumptive Republican and Democratic nominees for Virginia’s 2025 governor race addressed the same audience Friday at the 2024 Virginia Economic Summit and Forum on International Trade in Richmond. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, spoke just[...]