Radar Company Has Overseas Customers in Sights

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Reflecting the need to find new revenue streams amid ongoing domestic budget cuts, the Van Nuys division of defense contractor Exelis Inc. last week announced that it had secured a $76 million contract with the Polish military.

The contract calls for the McLean, Va., company’s radar-producing facility in Los Angeles to supply systems, training and maintenance services to the Polish armed forces.

The deal will bring the number of Exelis radars in Poland to 14. It will increase the international presence of this specific type, GCA-2020, a mobile precision air traffic management system that can guide planes to land hands free, to 11 sites, said Paul Propster, the company’s senior strategy and marketing manager.

“We kind of had a little bit of a rush at the end of the year,” he said.

The Polish deal, which accounted for about 20 percent of the plant’s overall sales last year, follows a $7.5 million deal with Sweden in October and an $8 million deal with Estonia a couple of weeks ago, he said. It comes as U.S. defense spending slows down.

“I think the majority of aerospace companies are focusing on the international markets as a way to weather the storm,” Propster said. “Fortunately for us and for our business area, we’ve got a pretty good install base internationally.”

The company developed the GCA-2020 technology years ago; its latest upgrade to the system was launched in 2012.

Exelis manufactures radar systems in its 277,500-square-foot facility in Van Nuys. Its 350 employees are mostly engineers and manufacturing staff. Radar systems are the primary product manufactured at the plant and most are sold overseas.

The company will begin delivering on the Polish contract next year. Propster said the division is in discussions for several other contracts that, taken together, could match the dollar value of the Polish deal.


Russian Revolutions

Another international deal announced last week was by Capstone Turbine Corp., a gas turbine manufacturer in Chatsworth.

The company received two orders from BPC Engineering, its Russian distributor, to install low-emission microturbines at power stations in that country.

Jim Crouse, Capstone’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, said it was a significant deal and will help the company further penetrate the Russian market, one of its top five markets in the oil and gas business. About 65 percent of the company’s business comes from the oil and gas industry.

He said the deal was worth between $15 million and $20 million. The two orders would together account for 24 megawatts.

Some of those microturbines can process untreated gas that would otherwise be flared, or burned off, and use it to generate electricity. Being able to use that gas rather than flare it could have a substantial economic impact. According to World Bank, Russia, which flares nearly 40 billion cubic meters of gasannually, loses more than $5 billion every year because of flare-related economic and environmental problems.

“Russia has been trying to reduce or eliminate flaring,” Crouse said. “This is a continuation of the deployment of our technology to run on associated gas to reduce the amount of flared gas from different oil fields around the country.”

Capstone manufactures low-emission microturbine systems in two facilities in the San Fernando Valley. Among its 200 employees in the Valley, about 80 are engineers.


New Board Seat

The board of El Segundo think tank Aerospace Corp. promoted Vice Chairwoman Barbara Barrett to chairwoman last month. Former Chairman Peter B. Teets retired after serving his maximum term as chairman for the non-profit government-funded research, development and advisory organization. Lt. Gen. George K. Muellner was elected vice chairman.

Barrett, who joined the board in 2006, will lead the board to set investment decisions, compensation decisions and select senior leadership. She has held numerous senior positions in her career in both public and private sectors, including as an executive of two global Fortune 500 companies before the age of 30. A former ambassador to Finland, she has been an adviser to four American presidents on trade and defense policy.

Barrett also serves on the boards of the Rand Corp. and Smithsonian Institution.

Staff reporter Kay Chinn can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 237.

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