The aviation arm of General Electric Co. is looking to its Santa Ana site to go after a new wave of government military contracts for unmanned planes.
The Santa Ana unit, which used to be part of London-based Smiths Group PLC until GE bought Smiths’ aerospace arm in 2007, plans to beef up technology for what is expected to be the next wave of warfare spending.
The Pentagon has allocated about $350 billion in its 2010 budget for technology projects such as unmanned plans as it shifts priorities away from big-ticket fighter jets and other items.
Surveillance and unmanned aircraft and other devices are being sought, both of which rely on cyber security to protect them.
“The unmanned market hasn’t been fully tapped—there’s a lot of potential here,” said Santa Ana site leader John Hahn, who also worked for the unit when it belonged to Smiths.
The unit now falls under GE Aviation, a maker of jet and other engines. The Santa Ana site makes and assembles landing gear, fuel tanks and other plane parts from its 278,000-square-foot operation.
The site employs about 265 workers. Three jobs were lost since the GE buyout, thanks mostly to a steady workload.
This month, the Santa Ana site delivered landing gear for Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp.’s X-47B Navy Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration program.
The program is intended to give the Navy a fighter-size unmanned plane to carry out surveillance and strike missions from aircraft carriers.
Santa Ana also makes parts for Northrop’s RQ-4 Global Hawk, an unmanned plane used by the Air Force for surveillance.
Designs for new unmanned plane parts now take up most of the workload for the unit’s 25 engineers, Hahn said.
The company also is eyeing several new contracts as the Pentagon readies its budget for next year.
“In this business companies always have a lot of proposals pending,” Hahn said. “We’re targeting a lot of follow up work for contracts we already have.”
Smith began working on unmanned designs in 2000 with landing gear for smaller planes made by Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp.
Continued work to build landing gear for Harford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp.’s Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and its UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter is on the table, according to Hahn.
The unit also is looking to pick up fuel tank work for Boeing Co.’s F/A-18 Hornet fighter plane.
The company likely would add workers if it got the multiyear, $50 million contract, Hahn said.
Work for its aerial refueling equipment also could pick up next year when the Pentagon awards a $40 billion contract for a new tanker.
The contract initially was awarded to Northrop in 2008 and was redrawn after Boeing protested it.
The Santa Ana site already makes the fuel tank pods that go on the wing of Boeing’s 767 Global Tanker Transport Aircraft, as well as hoses for refueling other planes.
The same gear likely would be used for Boeing’s KC-X tanker, which is in the running for the Pentagon contract expected to be awarded next year.
Other businesses within GE provide control systems for the tanker.
GE could hire as many as a hundred workers companywide to handle the work, Hahn said.
But as a maker of parts for both Boeing and Northrop, GE Aviation feels it would pick up business either way, Hahn said.
Cincinnati-based GE Aviation had sales of $17 billion last year.
In addition to modifying its business focus, the GE unit also is changing some of its internal operations.
GE brought in new metal cutting machinery for the factory and instituted stricter safety measures, which has cut down on injuries and promoted healthier behavior, officials said.
