Ronald Sugar, chief executive officer and president of Northrop Grumman, today downplayed recently disclosed cost and schedule issues facing the Navy's Virginia-class submarine program. Northrop's shipyard in Newport News, VA, is developing the new class of attack subs with General Dynamics' Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, CT, which leads the program. Northrop does about half of the work on the program, Sugar noted. The Navy maintains the program essentially has two lead vessels because of the alternating final assembly points...