Henry Kravis’ Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is involved in exclusive talks to buy Northrop Grumman’s engineering and consulting unit TASC for roughly $2 billion, sources said.

While the interest in TASC by KKR, which has teamed with General Atlantic, was known, the development that KKR and General Atlantic have entered into exclusive negotiations signals the duo have emerged the winner.

Sources said the KKR team is expected to put about $1 billion down, and have TASC finance the rest at about 5.5 times cash flow.

If completed, the deal would mark the second time that a major government intelligence consulting firm was bought out by a private-equity firm. The other, Booz Allen & Hamilton, was acquired by Apollo Investment and The Carlyle Group in July 2008 for $2.5 billion.

KKR and Northrop spokespeople both declined comment.