L3Harris Technologies (L3Harris) is an American

technology company A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services. Details According to ''Fo ...

defense contractor The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and serv ...

, and

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

provider that produces C6ISR systems and products,

wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...

equipment, tactical radios,

avionics Avionics (a blend word, blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, ...

and electronic systems,

night vision equipment A night-vision device (NVD), also known as a night optical/observation device (NOD), night-vision goggle (NVG), is an optoelectronic device that allows visualization of images in low levels of light, improving the user's night vision. The dev ...

, and both terrestrial and spaceborne

antennas In radio engineering, an antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies a ...

for use in the government, defense, and commercial sectors. They specialize in surveillance solutions, microwave weaponry, and

electronic warfare Electronic warfare (EW) is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EM spectrum) or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponen ...

. It was formed from the merger of

L3 Technologies L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems and products, ...

(formerly L-3 Communications) and

Harris Corporation Harris Corporation was an American technology company, defense contractor, and information technology services provider that produced wireless equipment, tactical radios, electronic systems, night vision equipment and both terrestrial and spaceb ...

on June 29, 2019, and was expected to be the sixth-largest defense contractor in the United States.

History

The "Harris Automatic Press Company" was founded by Alfred S. Harris in

Niles, Ohio Niles is a city in southern Trumbull County, Ohio, United States, situated at the confluence of the Mahoning River and Mosquito Creek. The city's population was 18,443 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan a ...

, in 1895. The company spent the next 60 years developing

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

ic processes and

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...

es before acquiring

typesetting Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or ''glyphs'' in digital systems representing ''characters'' (letters and other symbols).Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random Ho ...

company

Intertype Corporation The Intertype Corporation produced the Intertype, a typecasting machine closely resembling the Linotype, and using the same matrices as the Linotype. It was founded in New York in 1911 by Hermann Ridder, of Ridder Publications, as the Internat ...

. In 1967, they merged with Radiation, Inc. of

Melbourne, Florida Melbourne is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is located southeast of Orlando. As of th2020 Decennial Census there was a population of 84,678. The municipality is the second-largest in the county by both size and population. ...

, a developer of antenna,

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

, and

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

technology used in the

space race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...

. The company headquarters was moved from Cleveland to Melbourne in 1978. On May 29, 2015, Harris finalized the purchase of competitor Exelis Inc., almost doubling the size of the original company. L-3 Communications was formed in 1997 to acquire certain business units from

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

that had previously been part of

Loral Corporation Loral Corporation was a defense contractor founded in 1948 in New York by William Lorenz and Leon Alpert as Loral Electronics Corporation. The company's name was taken from the first letters of each founder's surname. History Loral Corporation o ...

. These units had belonged to

Lockheed Corporation The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but ot ...

and Martin Marietta, which had merged three years before in 1993. The company was founded by (and named for) Frank Lanza and Robert LaPenta in partnership with

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

. Lanza and LaPenta had both served as executives at Loral and Lockheed. The company continued to expand through

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

to become one of the top ten U.S. government contractors. At the end of 2016, the company changed its name from L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. to L3 Technologies, Inc. to better reflect the company's wider focus since its founding in 1997. In October 2018, Harris and L3 announced an all-stock "merger of equals". As part of that deal, Harris was required to sell its night vision division; the reasoning was that a merger of Harris and L3's night vision departments would create an effective monopoly on the night vision industry. The merger was completed on June 29, 2019, and the new company, L3Harris Technologies, Inc., is based in Melbourne, Florida, where Harris was headquartered. The new company was led by former Harris CEO William M. Brown as the

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, with former L3 CEO as the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and

COO COO or coo may refer to: Business * Certificate of origin, used in international trade * Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official * Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process ...

. On June 29, 2021, Brown turned over the role of CEO to

Chris Kubasik Christopher E. Kubasik is chair, and chief executive officer of L3Harris Technologies, a provider of global ISR, communications and networked systems, and electronic systems for military, homeland security and commercial aviation customers. In th ...

, retaining the title of Executive Chair, and Kubasik adding the title of Vice Chair. In 2018, L3Harris acquired two Australian cybertechnology companies, Azimuth Security and Linchpin Labs. The two companies are reportedly suppliers of zero-day exploits for the

Five Eyes The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are parties to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in sign ...

and the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

. In January 2022, L3Harris reorganized its business structure, eliminating the Aviation Systems business segment and distributing its divisions between the remaining three Integrated Mission Systems, Space & Airborne Systems, and Communications Systems segments. In June 2022, Chris Kubasik succeeded as the Chair following Bill Brown's retirement.

Business organization

, L3Harris is organized under three business segments: Integrated Mission Systems, Space & Airborne Systems, and Communication Systems. It is led by a 13-member board of directors, including Chair and CEO Chris Kubasik.

Integrated Mission Systems

Headquartered in

Palm Bay, Florida Palm Bay is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The city's population was 119,760 at th2020 United States Census making it the most populous city in the county and the largest by land mass. The historic section of the city lies on the ...

, Integrated Missions Systems specializes in

intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance ISTAR stands for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employing its sensors and managing t ...

(ISR) and

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...

systems; electrical and electronic systems for maritime use; electro-optical systems including infrared, laser imaging, and targeting systems; defense aviation systems including weapons systems and

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

s; and commercial aviation solutions, including

collision avoidance system A collision avoidance system (CAS), also known as a pre-crash system, forward collision warning system, or collision mitigation system, is an advanced driver-assistance system designed to prevent or reduce the severity of a collision. In its ...

flight recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...

s, flight simulators, and pilot training. It comprises divisions, including some of those formerly in the Aviation Systems segment and

Wescam L3Harris Wescam, stylized as L3Harris WESCAM, is a Canadian company specializing in the production of gyroscope, gyro-stabilized, Image sensor, EO-Thermography, IR imaging systems. Wescam Inc. is a subsidiary of L3Harris Technologies. The name ...

, that had a combined revenue of $7.0 billion in 2021.

Space & Airborne Systems

Headquartered in

, Space & Airborne Systems specializes in space mission, payloads, and sensors for

satellite navigation A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pr ...

, ISR,

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the ...

, and

missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), ...

; ground systems for space

command and control Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...

and tracking; optical and wireless networking for

situational awareness Situational awareness or situation awareness (SA) is the perception of environmental elements and events with respect to time or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their future status. An alternative definition is tha ...

and

air traffic management 334x334px, Air traffic management (ATM) is an aviation term encompassing all systems that assist aircraft to depart from an aerodrome, transit airspace, and land at a destination aerodrome, consisting of air traffic services (ATS) including air tr ...

; defense avionics; and

countermeasures. It comprises divisions, including some of those formerly in the Aviation Systems segment, that had a combined revenue of $6.0 billion in 2021.

Communications Systems

Headquartered in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

, Communications Systems specializes in tactical communications, broadband communications, night vision (inherited from L3 Technologies, unrelated to night vision developed by Harris, ITT, or Exelis), and public safety. It comprises divisions that had a combined revenue of $4.3 billion in 2021.

Controversies

In 2019, L3Harris paid $13 million to settle allegations that Harris, before the merger, violated Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations regulations. According to a proposed charging letter Harris Corporation violated AECA (22U.S.C.2751 et seq.) and ITAR (22 CFR parts 120–131) for a total of 131 separate violations. In June 2022, it was reported to have held talks to purchase the Israeli company NSO, which builds Pegasus. White House officials heard of the talks and voiced opposition, resulting in L3Harris discontinuing its plans.

Products

* AVCATT, a mobile aviation training simulator *

StingRay Stingrays are a group of sea rays, which are cartilaginous fish related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae ( ...

and Hailstorm phone trackers. *

OpenSky OpenSky is a registered trademark of Harris Corporation and is the trade name for a wireless communication system, invented by M/A-COM Inc., that is now a division of Harris RF Communications. OpenSky technology applies voice over IP transport t ...

wireless communication system * TCAS,

FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

& CVR products of the Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems product line, serviced and managed by

OEMServices OEMServices SAS (formerly ''SAVE GIE''), or OEMS for short, is a French company involved in the maintenance, repair, overhaul, logistics and customer support of commercial aircraft. It is a joint venture between aerospace giants Safran, Thales, ...

* hC2 L3Harris Command and Control Battle Management Suite—former "Harris Command and Control" * Integrated Core Processor, main computer in

F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide ele ...

and in

C-130J Super Hercules The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. The C-130J is a comprehensive update of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, with new engines, flight deck, and other systems. The C-130J is the newest v ...

* GPNVG-18, a night vision device that utilises four night vision tubes to give the user a wider field of view *AN/PVS-31A BNVD and 1531 BNVD. Binocular articulating night vision devices. Standard issue goggle for US SOCOM. *Azimuth, technology enabling access to data from locked mobile phones. L3Harris acquired Azimuth in 2018 through an acquisition of an Australian company, Azimuth Security.

References

External links

* {{Authority control American companies established in 2019 Electronics companies of the United States Defense companies of the United States Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Companies based in Brevard County, Florida Manufacturing companies based in Florida Melbourne, Florida Electronics companies established in 2019 2019 establishments in Florida Military equipment of the United States Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Avionics companies Security equipment manufacturers