ITT-Gilfillan Homes In on Radar Systems and Profit
The Gilfillan brothers took a while to find their niche.
In 1912, Sennett and Jay Gilfillan tried to make their fortune mining precious metals. While fiddling with some iridium they mined, they found the material worked well in the starters of car engines, and their company went on to make a name for itself in auto parts.
From there, the Gilfillan firm moved into electronics, making radios in the 1920s and experimenting with television sets in the 1930s. In 1942, the U. S. Army asked the Los Angeles brothers to develop radar systems that would help planes land in bad weather.
Forty-four years later, Gilfillan is making nothing but radar equipment, and it is reaping the benefits of an unprecedented industry boom. Now known as ITT-Gilfillan and part of ITT Corp. since 1964, the business’s contract backlog is approaching a record $300 million, and company officials forecast a $500-million backlog by 1990.
Industry analysts say the electronics segment of the U. S. defense budget is growing faster than any other, mirroring the general growth in the electronics industry. Gilfillan is known particularly for its ship-based radar systems, and two U. S. Navy contracts account for most of its business.
5-Year Navy Contract
In 1983, Gilfillan was awarded a five-year, $185-million Navy contract for air surveillance equipment used on cruisers and aircraft carriers. Earlier this year, Gilfillan got another four-year, $106-million contract for the equipment.
Despite the good times in the military radar industry, Gilfillan is but one of many players in a field that includes subsidiaries of multinational giants such as Hughes Aircraft, Raytheon, Westinghouse and Sperry. And the competition isn’t friendly.
Dan Reeder, a Hughes spokesman, said there are hard feelings at Hughes. He claimed that the equipment Gilfillan is making for the Navy is based largely on Hughes technology. ITT officials disputed that, saying that the design is principally their own and that the only Hughes-inspired elements are at least 20 years old.
Boom a Mixed Blessing
All the same, Gilfillan President James E. Howard, 54, a taciturn West Point graduate and former pilot, says his company and its competitors have a lot in common despite their varying specialties. He said Gilfillan consistently bids against the same companies, all of which can make similar products at about the same cost.
The boom in defense electronics has been a mixed blessing. Byron Callan, an analyst for Prudential-Bache Securities in New York, said it is forcing companies like Boeing and Lockheed to shift their attention from fuselages to high-tech gadgetry. That, in turn, means increased competition for established defense electronics companies like Gilfillan.
ITT releases little financial information about its Gilfillan unit. Company officials say only that the unit’s annual sales approach $200 million, and that it always has been profitable.
Howard, who spent 19 years at IBM before joining ITT two years ago, predicted that the company will grow as a manufacturer of systems which include radar and communications gear that enable operators to relay information to officers.
A typical Gilfillan ship radar system, which sells for about $10 million, includes a dozen 7-foot-tall cabinets of wires and circuitry. That gear is coupled with a 6,600-pound, revolving antenna whose surface consists mainly of tiny black aluminium squares.
Land-Based Systems
Gilfillan also makes land-based radar systems that help direct incoming planes, and a small, coastal surveillance system called Falcon used to monitor low-flying aircraft.
Gilfillan, housed principally in a nine-building complex in Van Nuys that resembles a military base, employs slightly fewer than 2,000 workers, including about 500 engineers. The unit also has smaller offices in Sylmar and Northridge, and operates an antenna test facility at Loop Canyon.
Gilfillan is part of ITT’s Defense-Space Group, based in Nutley, N. J. New York-based ITT also is involved in hotel management, insurance and telecommunications.
