Northrop Grumman Corp. has been awarded an Army contract worth up to $267 million to develop a system called Defense Knowledge Online, the company said Tuesday.

The system will serve as an entry portal for all Dept. of Defense users to access government networks supporting all operations, missions and support processes.

The contract is for one year with four six-month options, the Los Angeles-based defense contractor said. Northrop said the project is intended to grow the system from 1.8 million users to more than 8 million across all federal government agencies.

Shares in Northrop were down 65 cents to $73.17 in afternoon trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.