L3 Technologies - Vertex Aerospace

L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, is an American company that supplies command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training devices and services, instrumentation, space, and navigation products. Its customers include the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Government intelligence agencies, NASA, aerospace contractors and commercial telecommunications and wireless customers.

L3 is headquartered in Murray Hill, Manhattan, New York City.

History

L3 was formed as L-3 Communications in 1997 to acquire certain business units from Lockheed Martin that had previously been part of Loral Corporation. These units had belonged to Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta, which had merged three years before in 1993. The company was founded by (and named for) Frank Lanza and Robert LaPenta in partnership with Lehman Brothers. Lanza and LaPenta had both served as executives at Loral and Lockheed.

L3 continued to expand through mergers and acquisitions to become one of the top ten U.S. government contractors.

On November 4, 2010 L3 issued a part purge notification to prevent future use of Chinese counterfeit parts, but did not notify its customers whose display systems suffered from much higher than expected failure rates.

Acquisitions

1997

• Paramax Systems Corporation from Lockheed Martin. Loral had acquired Paramax in 1995

2000

• Training & Simulation Division of Raytheon Systems Co., based in Arlington, Texas. This company was formerly known as Hughes Training, Inc., and part of the Hughes Aircraft Defense Group purchased by Raytheon from General Motors two years earlier. The division traces its ancestry to the original company formed by Edwin Link, inventor of the airplane simulator, and accordingly was renamed Link Simulation and Training.

2001

• Litton Electron Devices from Northrup Grumman (renamed L3 Electron Devices)

2002

• Raytheon Aircraft Integration Systems (renamed L3 Integrated Systems, now known as L3 Mission Integration Division)
• SyColeman Corporation, which came about from the joining of Sy Technologies and Coleman Research Corporation.
• PerkinElmer Detection Systems from PerkinElmer which became L-3 Security & Detection Systems.

2003

• Ship Analytics, Inc.

2005

• Titan Corp., after a failed buyout attempt by Lockheed Martin.
• L-3 Communication Combat Propulsion Systems, previously owned by General Dynamics Land Systems.
• L-3 Communications MAPPS, previously CAE's Marine Controls unit
• Electron Dynamic Devices from Boeing Satellite Systems.
• Applied Signal & Image Technology, Linthicum Heights, MD. Geo-location systems for RF emitters.

2006

• Advanced System Architectures, a company based in Fleet, Hampshire, United Kingdom. L-3 ASA has core capabilities in the development and through-life management of complex information systems, data fusion and tracking solutions, and interoperable secure communications systems.
• Crestview Aerospace, a company based in northwest Florida. Crestview Aerospace provides aircraft structures, major airframe assemblies, and military aircraft modifications for leading prime contractors and OEMs in the aerospace industry.
• Nautronix and MariPro, based in Fremantle, Australia and Santa Barbara, California, respectively, from Nautronix Plc in Aberdeen, Scotland. Nautronix and MariPro provide acoustic ranges and hydrographics to commercial and defense markets.
• TRL Technology, a specialist defense electronics company based in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. TRL Technology is internationally known for development and innovation in the fields of interception, surveillance, electronic warfare, and communications.

2010

• Insight Technologies, a company based in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Insight develops and builds optics, from night-vision goggles to weapon-mounted sights and lasers.

2012

• Thales Training and Simulation (partial), a multinational company which manufactures civil and military full flight simulators and provides related training and support services - a wholly owned subsidiary of the Thales Group. In August 2012 L-3 acquired Thales Group's civil fixed-wing flight simulation business, to form L-3 Link Simulation & Training UK.

2015

• CTC Aviation Limited, a company based in Southampton providing training and resourcing to many international airlines, most notably through its 'CTC Wings' ab-initio flight training program which successfully places many cadets within a vast network of partner airlines. As well as providing MPL courses for airlines such as Qatar Airlines, easyJet and Flybe, CTC Aviation also trains pilots on the British Airways Future Pilot Program. The aviation academy has a 98% employment rate with various airlines including Ryanair, FlyBe and many more. CTC also has locations in Hamilton, New Zealand, Phoenix, Arizona and Gatwick Airport in London.

2016

• MacDonald Humfrey (Automation), a Luton, UK based checkpoint security and automation company.

Business organization

As of 2016, L3 is organized under three business segments:

• Electronic Systems
  • Advanced Programs
  • Aviation Products and Security
  • Integrated Sensor Systems
  • Power and Propulsion Systems
  • Precision Engagement and Training
  • Warrior Systems
• Aerospace Systems
  • Aircraft Systems
  • ISR Systems
  • MAS
  • Vertex Aerospace
• Communication Systems
  • Advanced Communications
  • Broadband Communications
  • Space and Power
  • Tactical SATCOM

Management

Frank Lanza, CEO and co-founder, died on June 7, 2006. CFO Michael T. Strianese was named as interim CEO, and was appointed Chairman, President and CEO of the company on October 23, 2006.

Naming

L3 Technologies was originally named L-3 Communications for the last initials of its founders Frank Lanza, Robert LaPenta, and Lehman Brothers. Despite the similarity in naming, there is no corporate connection between L3 Technologies, formerly known as L-3 Communications, and networking provider Level 3 Communications, whose name is often abbreviated "L3" in informal industry communication.

On 31 December 2016, L3's company name changed from L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. to L3 Technologies, Inc. to better reflect the company's wider focus since its founding in 1997. The company's website changed from L-3com.com to L3T.com, but the company's NYSE ticker symbol of LLL remained the same.

Products

• L-3 ProVision, Millimeter Wave Airport Passenger Screening System
• L-3 eXaminer SX, 3DX, and XLB, Airport baggage scanning systems
• L-3 OptEX, Trace level explosive detection system
• AVCATT, a mobile aviation training simulator
• Orchid, Total Development & Simulation Environment (Power, Marine)
• EOTech, Holographic weapon sights
• L-3 Sonoma EO, Electro Optical Imaging Systems, 1508M Dragon Eyes, 1205MD, 2111X, 2514X, & 2711G

EOTech Defective Holographic Sights Lawsuit

In 2015, L3 Technologies agreed to pay $25.6 million to settle a lawsuit with the U.S. Government. L3 was accused of knowingly providing the U.S. military with optics that failed in extreme temperatures and humid weather conditions. These sights were provided to infantry and special operations forces operating in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as civilians and law enforcement.

The civil fraud lawsuit was filed by Preet Bharara, in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit alleged L3 officials have known since 2006 that the holographic sights being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan failed to perform as advertised in extreme temperature ranges. The lawsuit alleges that the FBI independently discovered the thermal drift defect in March 2015 and presented EOTech with "the very same findings that the company had documented internally for years. Shortly thereafter, EOTech finally disclosed the thermal drift defect to DoD." According to court documents, EOTech had advertised that its sights performed in temperatures ranging from -40 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and in humid conditions.

In temperature extremes the sights exhibited thermal drift, which is when the sight's point of aim differed from its point of impact.|

John Bailey, director of marketing at EOtech said,

Thermal drift is basically when you go from ambient temperature to temperature extreme there is going to be a point of impact shift...We have realized that our sight could shift … in those extremes, -40 and 122 Fahrenheit.

The sights also suffered from reticle fading and parallax.

Federal contract suspension

In 2010 it was announced that L3's Special Support Programs Division had been suspended by the United States Air Force from doing any contract work for the US federal government. A US Department of Defense investigation had reportedly found that the company had, "used a highly sensitive government computer network to collect competitive business information for its own use." A US federal criminal investigation ended the temporary suspension on July 27, 2010.