Electronics used in radios to find downed military pilots have an Anaheim unit of defense contractor L-3 Communications Inc. under a criminal probe that’s touched on two other local circuit board makers.
The Justice Department and the Pentagon are looking into Interstate Electronics Corp. for circuit boards it supplied to Boeing Co.’s Anaheim unit for handheld radios.
Investigators are looking into whether Interstate knew about problems with the boards and delayed notifying military officials.
Interstate sent a letter to Boeing in July citing potential issues with some boards, according to a Boeing spokesman. Boeing recalled some 1,400 radios and replaced the boards, the spokesman said.
Investigators haven’t contacted Boeing as part of the criminal probe, he said. The company continues to supply radios under a contract worth $186 million, he said.
In December, a federal search warrant was issued for Interstate’s facility near State College Boulevard and Katella Avenue, according to a Justice Department spokesman in Los Angeles.
Interstate is the largest of L-3’s Orange County businesses, making up a big chunk of the company’s 800 workers here.
Two other electronics makers, Santa Ana-based TTM Technologies Inc. and the Costa Mesa facility of San Jose’s Sanmina-SCI Corp., were cited in a Pentagon notice about potentially defective circuit boards.
Both companies were tapped by Interstate to help produce boards for the Boeing radios, which pinpoint downed pilots without giving away their location to the enemy.
For more on this story, see the May 9 edition of the Business Journal.
