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Montgomery County officials are going to be "very aggressive" in trying to get Northrop Grumman to move its headquarters to the county in the wake of Monday's statement by the company that it plans to move its headquarters from Los Angeles to the Washington metropolitan area by next year.

Steven A. Silverman, Montgomery County's director of economic development, said "We'll be very aggressive in trying to get them to join Lockheed Martin" in Montgomery. Defense and systems giant Lockheed Martin is headquartered in Bethesda.

"We have reached out to them and I expect we will be talking to the state [Department of Business and Economic Development officials] about putting together an aggressive plan."

DBED officials could not be reached for comment immediately Monday.

Northrop Grumman, which has extensive offices already in Linthicum, issued a statement that said it had made a "decision to move its corporate office from Los Angeles to the Washington, D.C. region by 2011. The company is engaged in a search to identify a specific location within the Washington, D.C. region, including the District, Maryland and Virginia."

The statement said the company plans to complete the search for a location by spring 2010 and open its new corporate office by summer 2011.

"As a global security company with a large customer base in the Washington, D.C. region, this move will enable us to better serve our nation and customers," said Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman President and CEO, in the statement.

The new corporate office of Northrop Grumman is to include about 300 workers. The company, with about 120,000 workers worldwide, employs about 30,000 in California, according to company information.