15 Jan 03. DRS Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: DRS) announced today that it has acquired the assets and certain liabilities of the Electromagnetics Development Center of Kaman Aerospace, a subsidiary of Kaman Corporation (NASDAQ: KAMNA), located in Hudson, Massachusetts. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Kaman’s Electromagnetics Development Center is a leader in the development of high-performance, lightweight electric motors, generators and drive electronics for defense, industrial and transportation applications. Renamed DRS Electric Power Technologies, it has produced advancements in electrical machine design for over twenty years, pioneering the application of permanent magnet motors and solid-state power electronics in large machines. The business is concentrated in four major areas: Navy Electric Drive Equipment, Electric Machine Technology, Army Vehicle Propulsion, and Industrial Oil and Gas Drilling Systems. The business employs over 60 people.
“The addition of DRS Electric Power Technologies positions DRS as the U.S. Navy’s leading, domestic, electric propulsion equipment supplier and builds on our presence in ship motor controls, power distribution and control equipment, automation, combat systems and networks throughout the combatant fleet,” said Mark S. Newman, DRS Technologies’ chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Teamed with Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) Newport News Shipbuilding on the DD(X) program, the Navy’s next new ship class, DRS Electric Power Technologies is the contracted supplier for key elements of the ship’s electric drive system, including motor magnetic elements, drive controls and power electronics for the engineering development model. Strategically important to our goal of increasing DRS equipment content on board ships in the DD(X) program, this new unit is an important component in our long-term goals for growth in the Navy power systems business and strongly complements our July 2002 acquisition of Eaton’s Navy Controls Division.”
The expertise at DRS Electric Power Technologies lies in electrical machine design, power electronics and embedded controls. The business is highly complementary to DRS’s leadership position in ship electric propulsion equipment, control equipment, high-performance networks, tactical displays and specialty reactor plant instrumentation. DRS Electric Power Technologies has a strong reputation as an innovator in electromagnetics, supported by development contracts from the Office of Naval Research and key Navy and Army laboratories. The business is developing novel wheel motors to support the U.S. Army’s Future Combat System and hybrid truck programs, leveraging its successful transit system motors and drives. DRS Electric Power Technologies also produces a line of highly reliable drill head motors for oil and gas exploration, as well as electric propulsion generators for transit buses. This acquisition expands DRS’s core engineering capabilities in electromagnetic machinery design, high-power electronics and machine controls. DRS Electric Power Technologies will operate as a unit of the company’s Electronic Systems Group.
DRS has worked closely with Kaman in the past on several programs and provided motor pumps for the Navy’s shipboard Integral Motor Firepump. It is expected that this long standing, highly effective working relationship will create new synergistic growth opportunities for DRS.