Leonardo DRS, formerly DRS Technologies, Inc., is a US-based

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 se ...

. Previously traded on the

NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...

, the company was purchased by the Italian firm Finmeccanica (now Leonardo S.p.A.) in October 2008.

History

Diagnostic/Retrieval Systems, Inc (DRS) was founded in 1968 by Leonard Newman (whose son, Mark Newman, was the CEO until January 2012) and David Gross, two engineers working for

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 or ...

. The two were working on signal processing techniques for anti-submarine warfare. When Loral chose to pursue other technology, Newman and Gross founded DRS to continue their research, which ultimately led to development of the AN/SQR-17 passive submarine detection system, a product still used today. DRS went public in 1981 and acquired its first company in 1984. By 1994, DRS set a goal to become a mid-tier defense contractor, defined by $500 million in sales – notwithstanding that DRS at the time had only $58M in sales. Six years later, at the turn of the century, DRS reached the $391 million sales level, and in 2004 surpassed the $1 billion sales mark. DRS was acquired by the Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica S.p.A. (now Leonardo S.p.A.) in 2008. In 2012, former

United States Deputy Secretary of Defense The deputy secretary of defense (acronym: DepSecDef) is a statutory office () and the second-highest-ranking official in the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The deputy secretary is the principal civilian deputy to the sec ...

, William J. Lynn III was appointed CEO of Finmeccanica North America DRS, replacing Mark Newman, who held the position since 1994. In June of 2022, Israel-based RADA Electronic Industries and Leonardo DRS announced an all-stock merger.

Products

Advanced Trainer

Leonardo DRS T-100 Integrated Training System The Aermacchi M-346 Master is a family of military twin-engine transonic advanced jet trainers and light combat aircraft. Originally co-developed with Yakovlev as the Yak/AEM-130, the partnership was dissolved in 2000 and then Alenia Aermacchi ...

* M1000 Trailer, part of the

Heavy Equipment Transport System Heavy Equipment Transporter System (HETS) is the name of a U.S. Army logistics vehicle transport system, the primary purpose of which is to transport the M1 Abrams tank. It is also used to transport, deploy, and evacuate armored personnel carriers, ...

Drone

DRS RQ-15 Neptune The DRS RQ-15 Neptune is a reconnaissance 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 ...

DRS Sentry HP __NOTOC__ The DRS Sentry HP is a reconnaissance UAV that was developed in the United States in the late 1980s by S-TEC. The program was acquired by Meggitt Parker Meggitt (formerly Meggitt plc) is a British international company specialising ...

References

External links