L3Harris Electron Devices

L3Harris Electron Devices is a division of L3Harris Technologies specializing in the manufacture of microwave devices for ground-based, airborne and satellite communications and radar. The division was formed from the former Electron Devices Division (EDD) of the Industrial Electronics Group of the Hughes Aircraft Company, and from the Litton Industries, both of which were acquired L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. prior to its merger with Harris Corporation. They are known for their traveling-wave tubes (TWTs), traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs), microwave power modules (MPMs) and electronic power conditioners (EPCs) as well as xenon gas ion propulsion systems (XIPS).^[1] Since its inception, EDD has produced tens of thousands of TWTs.^[2] They are the only U.S. supplier of space-qualified TWTs and TWTAs.^[3]

History

Litton Industries

Main page: Company:Litton Industries

In 1932, Charlie Litton started his own company in Redwood City, CA. By 1945 his company, known then as Litton Industries, had about 60 employees, about 20 of which were working on vacuum tubes. By 1948, the business had grown to be about half manufacturing equipment and half tubes. After receiving a contract for a magnetron designated the 4J52, as well as follow-on contracts, the company became a major competitor to Raytheon and very profitable. In 1953, Charlie Litton sold Litton Industries to Electro Dynamics Corporation, who renamed themselves to adopt the Litton Industries name. The original Litton Industries, now Litton Industries, Electron Tube Division, grew rapidly. In 1965, Litton Industries bought Sylvania's plant in Williamsport, PA and moved all magnetron production there. In 1975, Litton Industries bought MA-COM Tube Operations, and in 1993 bought Raytheon Microwave Power Tube Operations. During the 1990s, Litton developed tubes and became second source for most of the Hughes EDD's airborne radar tubes. In 2001, the company was purchased by Northrop Grumman, becoming Litton Electron Devices. A short time later in 2002, Northrop sold Litton to L-3 Communications, who renamed it L-3 Electron Devices.^[4][5]

Hughes Microwave Tube Division

Main page: Company:Hughes Aircraft Company

In the early 1950s, Hughes secured a military contract for the XF-108 Rapier interceptor's AN/ASG-18 fire control system and radar. At the end of the Korean War, the F-108 program was canceled, but Howard Hughes chose to keep the program going on company money. By 1959 Hughes Microwave Tube Division was operating in Culver City, California. Hughes was developing TWTs suitable for airborne radar, and eventually won the contract for the F-14 radar system. By the time the F-14 program went into production, the tube division had outgrown the Culver City facility. Hughes moved the operation to Torrance, California, in 1967, and it became Electron Dynamics Division (EDD) within the Industrial Electronics Group.^[4]

General Motors purchased Hughes Aircraft Company in 1985. The Boeing Company purchased GM's satellite operation in 2000, acquiring EDD in the process, and renamed it Boeing Satellite Systems, Electron Dynamic Devices, again maintaining the initials EDD. Boeing sold EDD to L-3 Communications, Inc. in 2005. L3 already owned another company using the initials EDD, thereby prompting a name change to L-3 communications, Electron Technologies, Inc. or ETI for short. Boeing sold the property in Torrance to RREEF America REIT III Corporation (RREEF) in October 2006.^[6]

L3Harris Consolidations

In 2012, L-3 Communications announced the closure of its California Tube Labs division in Watsonville, CA and moved the assets to their San Carlos and Williamsport, PA facilities.^[7] In mid-2016, L-3 announced they were again consolidating their microwave products companies with most of the Electron Devices, San Carlos, CA facility as well as the name moving to the former Hughes facility located in southern California.^[8] The new company would be known as L-3, Electron Devices Division, thereby returning the initials EDD to the Torrance facility and closing the legacy Litton Electron Tube factory. With the consolidation of the legacy Hughes and legacy Litton factories, the Torrence, CA and Williamsport, PA plants now house parts of the original Hughes, Litton, Raytheon, Sperry, GE, RCA, MA-COM and Huggins microwave tube businesses.^[4]

At the end of 2016, L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. changed their name to L3 Technologies, Inc.^[9] In 2019, L3 Technologies completed a "merger of equals" with Harris Corporation, forming L3Harris Technologies, Inc.^[10] The Torrance plant continues to operate as L3Harris Electron Devices.

References

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