For L3Harris, reception is loud and clear

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In the year since Harris Corp. and L3 Technologies Inc. merged to become L3Harris Technologies Inc., 500 staffers have been hired in Rochester, bringing the total number of employees here to more than 3,800.

And in the second quarter this year, the merged company reported a 138 percent increase in revenue, despite a pandemic that has crippled many sectors of the economy. In the first quarter, the company posted a 170 percent increase in revenue.

Some might say the merger was a match made in heaven.

“It’s been a busy and exciting year for us as L3Harris, a really remarkable first year as a combined company,” said Dana Mehnert, L3Harris Communication Systems president. “We came together the first of July (2019) as an L3Harris team, and I couldn’t be prouder of our employees and leadership team for everything that’s been accomplished in really what is an unprecedented time for all of us.”

L3Harris is now the sixth largest defense company in the U.S. and one of the top 10 defense companies worldwide.

“Our employees have really made the merger successful, coming together in the face of adversity and working every day to fulfill the mission that we set out for the new L3Harris Technologies,” Mehnert said. “Most importantly, our customers have applauded and appreciated the combination of the companies and a greater ability to address their needs.”

Mehnert said customers see the value in the combined company, particularly in its mission-critical capabilities and the greater scale L3Harris has as a merged company. More choices mean the company is a stronger competitor in both the U.S. and in the global aerospace and defense market, he noted.

“A year into it I think we’ve really made good on the value proposition of the merger, bringing together two strong aerospace and defense companies to create an even stronger combined company,” Mehnert said.

Indeed. In January, for example, the company landed a five-year, $100 million contract from U.S. Special Operations Command to work on the agency’s very small aperture terminals (VSAT).

L3Harris will provide software, hardware and warranty upgrades that will extend the life of existing Hawkeye III Lite VSAT terminals and deliver significant cost savings. The VSATs were secured through the Satellite Deployable Node – Family of Terminals or Satellite Deployable Node – Medium contracts for the program.

Mehnert said the groundwork had been laid for a number of contracts for some time, and L3Harris has successfully continued its large contracts with the U.S. Army, Special Operations Command and the U.S. Marine Corps.

“With new business we’ve expanded into areas with space communications and more resilient communications for the Air Force,” he said. “And of course the very strong international business that we’ve always had based here in Rochester has continued with a broader product portfolio. All of that has been very good for us and helped drive the business with a number of new contract awards.”

As individual companies, Harris and L3 each had three business segments. L3Harris now has four segments comprising Integrated Mission Systems, Space and Airborne Systems, Communication Systems and Aviation Systems. The Communication Systems (CS), which Mehnert oversees, and the Space and Airborne Systems are located in Rochester, with company headquarters in Florida.

When the merger took place, CS was a $2 billion business headquartered here.

“When we merged, this business more than doubled in size. We took on L3’s communications business. We also took on their night vision business and their satellite communications business that was based in Victor. And then we took some of the operations from Harris in Florida that were related to communications but were not part of our business, and we put that together into one very large segment,” Mehnert recalled. “We grew by more than two-times overnight.”

That meant that while Harris continues to operate its world-class manufacturing facility in Henrietta, the CS segment took on more accountability.

“Nothing happened in terms of the established facilities here, but we took on a lot more responsibility. We took on some more people,” Mehnert said. “The business was doing very well based here in Rochester, but with the added scale we now have to drive with new technologies across the business, I think it infused a lot of energy and a lot of technology and new opportunities. We became bigger, stronger and have more energy and are much more relevant to our global customers today.”

L3Harris has much in the pipeline, Mehnert said of the future of CS, including next generation solutions for communications in space and electronic warfare.

“It’s taking advantage of the strong position we have, delivering on these next generation products we’ve been developing, enabling the soldier networks that we’ve been on and have started deliveries on for the Army, for Special Operations Command, next generation communications for the Marine Corps,” he said. “(It’s) fielding these very advanced night vision and soldier systems and then continuing to grow in the international market based on the very strong base of technology capability we have.”

Part of L3Harris’ business that often gets overlooked is its public safety communications. The company handles all of the public safety communication systems for Genesee, Monroe, Ontario and Orleans counties.

“We build those radios at our facility in Henrietta,” Mehnert noted. “Many of those kinds of communications are migrating to hybrid networks that use 4 and 5G cellular technology, so it’s being able to bridge that capability from land mobile radio into those next generation capabilities so that the first responders and EMTs out there on the city streets have all those advanced technologies, just like our soldiers and special operators have out there on the battlefield.”

Mehnert said he is excited about both the possibilities for L3Harris and the community. The company is the leading employer of Rochester Institute of Technology engineers on earth.

“We are happy to be part of the Rochester community, we work hard to give back to it and are excited about our future here in Rochester,” Mehnert said.

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