Grumman Industries

Manufacturing
Grumman Industries was the company responsible for the design of the and production of the Zephyr hovertank for the Star League Defense Force during the Star League era. Grumman continued to supply ComStar with vehicles after the fall of the Star League, and when the Word of Blake seized control of Terra in the thirty-first century the Blakists continued to purchase vehicles from Grumman.

The Word of Blake invested heavily in Grumman, providing capital for the company to both upgrade and expand their various vehicle production lines; almost the first of the orders placed by the Blakists on Grumman was for a revamped version of the Zephyr. The first of these new vehicles was seen in service at least as early as 3062, and following demonstrations of the vehicle to the Precentor of Terran Security Grumman were awarded a huge production contract.

Orders from the Word of Blake for the new Zephyr vehicle proved to be so high that Grumman opened a new manufacturing plant in 3066, located on the nearby world of New Earth. The high volume of orders was a result of the Blakists first forming and then later expanding both Word of Blake Militia and Protectorate Militia forces.

Dissidents within the Grumman-New Earth branch began to harbor doubts about the actions being taken by the Word of Blake outside of the Word of Blake Protectorate, and in 3071 those dissidents began smuggling Zephyrs to enemies of the Protectorate, with figures as high up as Vice President Rudolph Brice assisting in the smuggling efforts. More than two hundred Zephyrs were smuggled out from the New Earth facility before the dissidents departed on a long "retreat" at Grumman's headquarters on Terra, and when the smuggling operations were uncovered the entire New Earth facility was placed under lockdown pending detailed investigations. Brice was targeted by a Word of Blake detainment team that raided Grumman's offices in the early 3070s; having been identified as being responsible for diverting Zephyrs to both black marketeers within the Word of Blake Protectorate and agents within the Skye region of the Lyran Alliance, Brice narrowly escaped the detainment team and went on the run, with the Word of Blake placing a bounty of 75 million C-Bills on his head.

Grumman Industries launched GrummanCRI in the late 3060s or early 3070s, a merger between Grumman and CRI Mechanical of the Lyran Alliance. GrummanCRI reinvigorated and revamped production of the Marksman artillery vehicle from facilities on the Lyran world of Melissia.

Melissia
Grumman were manufacturing on Melissia under the GrummanCRI brand.

New Earth
The Grumman facility on New Earth was opened in 3066 to manufacture the Zephyr hovertank following heavy investment in the company by the Word of Blake.