After nearly a year full of struggles and mulling alternatives, the Defense contractor Group Northrop Grumman Corp. has said that the board has approved the expected spin-off of its ship-making business to the stockholders.

Today, it was declared by Northrop Grumman Corp. that Ronald D. Sugar, its Chairman and Chief Executive, will leave his job by the end of 2009 and Wesley G. Bush, the defense contractor's president and chief operating officer, will take his place.