Harris/L3 merger and Space and Intelligence Systems (Rochester, Binghamton: job openings, construction)
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I was wondering how the Harris/L3 merger which now combined makes the company the 6th largest defense contractor was going to affect Rochester, but it sounds like Dana Mehnert the president of the Communications Systems division of Harris which is based in Rochester, is confident that because of how ingrained Harris is here and with the world class facilities they have here, that it should create more jobs in Rochester. It also helps that L3 also has 180 employees and a facility in Rochester.
Interview with Dana the president of Harris' Communications division.
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RBJ: Let’s talk about the merger with L3 Technologies. What does it mean for Rochester?
Mehnert: We have to go through a period of diligence with the government and review by the Department of Justice, so it won’t actually close until midyear. Until that time it’s business as usual. In that process we’ll go through more detailed reviews of the business, ultimately figure out what the organization’s going to look like and how we’re going to combine businesses. So all of that has to be determined.
But I think it’s going to be very good for Rochester. We’re the world leader in tactical communications, a leader in public safety communications—that gives us a lot of capability in Rochester to build some things around. And as I look at L3, they’ve got some significant capabilities in satellite communications, airborne communications and airborne intelligent surveillance reconnaissance (ISR) and specialized secure communications, so it’s very complementary with what we do in Rochester. People worry about something going away; on the contrary, we’re just much stronger through the combination of the two businesses. So while it’s too early to talk about what an organization might look like, fundamentally I think it’s going to be very good for Rochester to build on the strong positions we have in communications. (L3) also have a business of about 180 people that does satellite communications, so those are very complementary businesses.
And then the other part of what we have in Rochester, on the west side of town, are about 1,500 people in our Space and Intelligence business. They do specialized optical payloads and imagery capabilities for satellites, the things that L3 does as well, so I think that will strengthen that portfolio well. They do some very specialized optical systems and optical communication systems, so everything related to the Rochester business is a complement. There isn’t really any overlap there. And I think based on the strong positions, the market leading positions that we have in secure communication, public safety communication and then in space and intelligence systems, it gives us a good foundation and core capability to build additional capabilities around.
Finally I would say we have a world class defense electronics manufacturing facility that’s part of our communications segment. That may provide opportunity where there might be some instances where L3 outsources some things today (that could be manufactured) in our facility in Rochester.
So all in all, even though we haven’t finalized the organization, … the combined entity will be so much stronger that we be able to compete for and win more business—which I think will be good for our businesses overall but particularly good for the businesses based in Rochester.
Interestingly too, I'm very familiar with Harris' Communication Systems division, but I wasn't as familiar with the Space and Intelligent business segment, and how active that division is in Rochester too. They are directly involved in working on the James Webb telescope which will be the replacement for the Hubble Telescope.
Quote:
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RBJ: What else should our readers know about Harris’ Communication Systems in Rochester?
Mehnert: In some ways we’re still a well-kept secret. A lot of people maybe still think of this business as RF Communications. If you talk about our space business it’s Kodak or it’s ITT or it’s Exelis. I think the thing they should know is 3,500 members of the community here are part of Harris. This is a very exciting, strong, growing business that does something that matters every day for our nation. The space business supports NASA, supports DoD, the intelligence community. When we look at a map on Google maps it’s coming from a telescope and camera up in space that’s made here in Rochester N.Y. Some of the smartest people in the world you’ll find in these buildings and the buildings over there (at Harris’ Space and Intelligence division). And we’re a big part of the community. I think because a lot of what we do is highly classified, it’s very secure in its nature, we tend not to talk a lot about it. I’m pleased to see the new sign up in the Rochester Airport that has got a soldier using our radios and the James Webb Space Telescope that we’re part of. That’s all Harris.
If you’re in Rochester in the community you ought to be proud of that. I think it’s important that they know that we provide the public safety communication systems that are in use out where I live in Victor in Ontario County, in Monroe County, so the guy out there taking care of stuff in the park is going to be on a Harris system, on a Harris radio.
As you think about Harris in this community there’s a lot there. We’re proud of this community. And it’s an exciting place to work. You don’t have to go to Silicon Valley or Boston to do cutting edge technology work. You can do it right here in Rochester.
I believe it when I see it when your talking about employee growth after a merger. Usually what happens a year of so after a merger, they identify what tasks are duplicated and eliminate the redundancy. You don't need two HR departments, two IT department and so on. The department affected might grow a little, but not double in size, one of them is going away, thus layoffs. Usually takes about a year for this to occur, they need to identify which one works better. They might think the email program is better from the one company and the accounting system is better from the other, they will settle on one as a standard and eliminate the other. Perhaps there will be long term growth, but in the short haul, I wager you'll see layoffs.
I believe it when I see it when your talking about employee growth after a merger. Usually what happens a year of so after a merger, they identify what tasks are duplicated and eliminate the redundancy. You don't need two HR departments, two IT department and so on. The department affected might grow a little, but not double in size, one of them is going away, thus layoffs. Usually takes about a year for this to occur, they need to identify which one works better. They might think the email program is better from the one company and the accounting system is better from the other, they will settle on one as a standard and eliminate the other. Perhaps there will be long term growth, but in the short haul, I wager you'll see layoffs.
While I agree with what you are saying, the headquarters of neither company are located here. Mostly the manufacturing and some R&D. In other words, where the income comes from, not the cost center you get with headquarters.
So far so good with Harris in Rochester. New money being invested in Rochester facilities for R&D (90 million), new jobs for a new contract with the military (140 full time jobs) and potentially funding for a next generation Nasa telescope with large portions of the design being at Rochester's Space and Intelligence division
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The future of telescopes is starting right here in Rochester with work from engineers at Harris Communication, but the funding for that project has not been approved.
The one man that is helping push this funding in Washington is Senator Chuck Schumer who came to Rochester Tuesday. He was able to help secure over $100 million in last year’s budget and plans to more than double that for this year.
Harris corporation has partnered with NASA to design a telescope right here in Rochester. "This investment will have huge bang for the buck," said Schumer.
Senator Chuck Schumer has proposed $352 million in the 2019 federal budget for this project that would potentially be approved by the end of the year. "As we were able to get money in last year’s budget, I believe we can double it today," said Schumer.
The WFIRST mission will be a satellite that sees more than 100 times the Hubble telescope. It could also potentially help understand dark energy. Other uses could be to find exoplanets across the universe to look at similar planets that may support life.
It will support over 150 jobs that Harris Corporation communications president Dana Mehnert says will work with this project and others for military and civilian communication technology. "That's to help us continue the development and production of our next generation products," said Mehnert.
This will be NASA's flagship telescope with potential launch in 2020.
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Senator Chuck Schumer was in Rochester Tuesday to announce new jobs and projects at Harris Corporation.
Schumer was pushing for funding for NASAs WFIRST mission, which stands for Wire Field Infrared Survey Telescope.
Parts of the telescope are being built at Harris. He said the telescope would be used to explore dark energy and its implications for the universe.
"It will have the same image precision as the Hubble Telescope which was the previous one but will see 100 times larger area further out than Hubble. That is the advantage of this. So it will do things like measure exploding stars."
Congress will decide on whether or not to pass the $352 million funding by Christmas.
Harris also announced that they would be hiring 50 new contract workers due to a new military radio contract, as well as adding 140 new full-time positions.
They said they would also be investing $90 million in their Rochester facilities for research and development purposes.
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Someone just posted on the Long Island Board that Harris/L3 is moving the corporate headquarters out of NYC to Florida, I wonder how many divisions will follow...
L3 doesn't have a corporate HQ anymore. It was acquired by Harris so Harris's Corporate HQ is now L3's HQ. That's why it's moving it to Florida. It wouldn't make any sense to have 2 corporate HQ's for what is now the same company. I would have been more surprised if they didn't roll L3's HQ into Harris's HQ.
I don't see this is as the same thing as what Harris's presence in Rochester is. In Rochester it is the meat of the Harris Communication division where Harris has invested hundreds of millions of dollars recently into manufacturing facilities and engineering jobs. They currently have many job openings in Rochester in fact. And the space division has successfully designed and delivered components of some of the most important telescopes in the world. Remember also that a lot of Harris Communications and their space division clients are government funded. Why would they move those jobs when they have a very influential senator Chuck Schumer working on getting Harris hundreds of millions of dollars towards these contracts. And also more than half of all OPI (Optics, Photonics, Imaging) degrees awarded every year are in Rochester. So their space division has access to those graduates to work on these telescope components.
It looks like the funding has officially come through and NASA has awarded the work for their next gen telescope to Harris in Rochester.
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The latest in NASA’s upcoming line of powerful in-space telescopes is currently under construction in Rochester.
Harris Corporation was awarded a nearly $196 million contract by the agency to begin construction on the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or WFIRST.
In 2016, designs on the WFIRST Telescope were created at Harris. It will explore an area of space 100 times bigger than the Hubble Telescope. Scientists hope the new technology will provide more answers about dark energy and alien life across the universe.
It’ll be the second powerful instrument to be launched, following a few years behind the James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2021 designed to be sensitive enough to look back to the beginnings of the first galaxies.
NASA hopes to complete construction within a few years and launch by the end of the 2020s.
The project will create 160 jobs in Rochester.
Harris’ operations have gone interstellar. Just last week, they celebrated the completion of their largest project ever that will be incorporated into the National Science Foundation’s telescope in Chile that will take images of the southern night sky every few days for more than ten years, helping scientists detect potentially hazardous asteroids and new solar systems.
And the spending package has now been approved as well which gives the funds to NASA with a good chunk of it going towards the Harris contract.
Quote:
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced Monday, Feb. 25 that a recently passed spending package includes $195.9 million in contract appropriations to the Harris Corp. for the manufacture of critical components in the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, otherwise known as WFIRST.
The WFIRST is being touted as the next flagship telescope for NASA.
The bipartisan appropriations project provides $312.2 million for NASA, the majority of which will go to Henrietta-based Harris Corp. for construction of the telescope and two aft optics assemblies.
“With this critical funding secured, we are one giant leap closer to propelling the revolutionary WFIRST Telescope to liftoff — something that will open up unknown corners of the universe to NASA and all humanity,” Schumer said in a news release.
The WFIRST will explore an area of space 100 times larger than what the Hubble Telescope can see, significantly enhancing the precision and clarity of NASA’s view into space.
Schumer said the expanded look may help scientists learn more about dark energy and its implications for the universe. The telescope will also be an exoplanet hunter, surveying whether there are other worlds that support life.
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