BAE Systems and Raytheon · the present primes

2000 — present

Controls, radios, and the aftermarket: BAE Systems' Fort Wayne presence dates, by the company's own account, to the 1980s — the GE aircraft-controls plant of the entry above, which came to BAE through Lockheed Martin in 2000. The company today describes two Fort Wayne facilities for its Electronic Systems business: a south site of 335,000 square feet of advanced manufacturing space and a north engineering facility of 50,000 square feet, together employing about 1,500 people across two product businesses — Controls and Avionics Solutions (CAS), serving more than 470 global customers, and C4ISR Systems, which produces airborne tactical radios for military platforms. The bread-and-butter product is the FADEC: more than 25,000 engines fly with Fort Wayne-built full-authority digital engine controls, on Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier and Embraer aircraft among others, and the Fort Wayne site is also the company's U.S. aftermarket service center for spares, repairs and overhauls. BAE moved into its present Airport Expressway facility — close enough to watch the 122nd's jets from the plant — around Christmas 2015, after about fifteen years in a World War II-era building on Taylor Street, on ground the city had first built for GE's superchargers: the 2013 city resolution for the project put the new plant at about 325,000 square feet and 42.2 million dollars, retaining 1,000 full-time jobs. Raytheon's Fort Wayne operation is the Magnavox succession itself: the former Magnavox defense plant at 1010 Production Road, carried in industry references as Raytheon Network Centric Systems, Radios and Terminals — the radios-and-terminals end of the line that produced the ARC-164 and the PRC-68 family. Together with L3Harris, these primes, and the supplier tier beneath them, are the standing defense industry the overview entry counts.

Sources:

1. BAE Systems, "Life in Fort Wayne" (jobs.baesystems.com) — two facilities, about 1,500 employees, CAS and C4ISR product lines, 470-plus CAS customers, the 335,000- and 50,000-square-foot sites, presence since the 1980s.
2. Fort Wayne magazine, "Made in Fort Wayne" — the Airport Expressway facility, the FADEC as the bread-and-butter product, 25,000-plus engines equipped, the aftermarket center, and the move around Christmas 2015 after about fifteen years on Taylor Street.
3. City of Fort Wayne, Confirming Resolution R-13-11-18 (26 November 2013) — the 325,000-square-foot, 42.22-million-dollar BAE Systems Controls project and 1,000 retained full-time jobs.
4. Forecast International, ARC-164(V) report (2008) — Raytheon Network Centric Systems, Radios and Terminals, 1010 Production Rd, Fort Wayne, as the successor operation.