Aerospace and Defense Web Sites Links

The mere mention of Los Angeles is enough to make most of us think of the city's wonderful climate, movie stars and the Hollywood sign. Many forget that Los Angeles is a business and manufacturing powerhouse, too. In fact, the city's bustling economy, which is built on international trade, music, television and the movies, aerospace, technology, oil, fashion and tourism, makes the City of the Angels the biggest manufacturing center in the United States.

One of the best ways to zero in on the industrial sectors that make the Los Angeles economy so powerful is to look more closely at the five Fortune 500 corporations that make Los Angeles their home Listed in alphabetical order according to the business sector they represent, these corporations are Northrop Grumman (aerospace), Occidental Petroleum (energy), Health Net (health care), KB Home (home building) and Reliance Steel & Aluminum (metals).

Here's a synopsis of each of these five corporations:

Founded in 1927 in Denver, Colorado, aerospace and defense contractor Northrop Grumman now calls Los Angeles its home base. With estimated annual revenues of 30 billion dollars and more than 120,000 employees worldwide, Northrop Grumman is the third biggest U.S. defense contractor and the number one maker of naval vessels for the U.S. Navy. Northrop Grumman's Corporate Headquarters are located at 1840 Century Park East, Los Angeles, California.

Nicknamed "OXY" after its trading symbol on the New York Stock Exchange, Occidental Petroleum is America's fourth largest oil and gas company. Headquartered at 10889 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, OXY employs about 9000 workers at locations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa and South America. Occidental Petroleum is the biggest Texas oil producer and also California's number one producer of natural gas.

Health Net, Inc., provides HMO, POS, PPO and other managed health care solutions to almost seven million customers in all 50 states. Health Net, which is formally based in Woodland Hills, one of many districts within the city of Los Angeles, came under national scrutiny in 2007 when a California woman sued the company, claiming it had wrongly discontinued her care during chemotherapy. As of this writing, the case is still pending in the courts.

Originally launched in 1957 as Kaufman & Broad, KB Homes is one of America's biggest homebuilders. KB Homes erected homes for some 37,000 American families in 2005, the last year for which this kind of data was available. Based in Los Angeles, KB Homes has four main divisions within the United States: West Coast (California), Southwest (Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico), Central (Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana and Texas) and Southeast (Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia). KB Homes' Corporate Headquarters are located at 10990 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California.

A hometown success story, Reliance Steel & Aluminum was established in 1939 at Los Angeles, where it originally manufactured steel reinforcing bar. Today, the company sells a complete line of over 60,000 metal products at over 180 locations in the United States, Belgium, Canada, China and South Korea. Still true to its roots, Reliance directs its global operations from its Corporate Headquarters at 350 South Grand Avenue, Suite 5100, Los Angeles, California.

Contact the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce at 350 South Bixel Street, Los Angeles, California, for more information about the Los Angeles economy.