L3 was formed asL-3 Communications in 1997 to acquire certain business units fromLockheed Martin that had previously been part ofLoral Corporation. These units had belonged toLockheed Corporation andMartin Marietta, which had merged three years before in 1993.[6] The company was founded by (and named for) FrankLanza and RobertLaPenta in partnership withLehman Brothers. Lanza and LaPenta had both served as executives at Loral and Lockheed.[7]
Training & Simulation Division of Raytheon Systems Co., based inArlington, Texas. This company was formerly known as Hughes Training, Inc., and part of the Hughes Aircraft Defense Group purchased by Raytheon fromGeneral Motors two years earlier. The division traced its ancestry to the original company formed byEdwin Link, inventor of theLink Trainer airplane simulator, and was renamed accordingly Link Simulation and Training (later Link Training and Simulation).[8]
Raytheon Aircraft Integration Systems (renamed L3 Integrated Systems; theGreenville, Texas facility is now known as L3 Mission Integration Division, while theWaco, Texas facility is now known as L3 Platform Integration Division)
SyColeman Corporation, which came about from the joining of Sy Technologies and Coleman Research Corporation
PerkinElmer Detection Systems from PerkinElmer which became L-3 Security & Detection Systems[9]
Wescam (currently named L3 Harris Wescam), developer of gyro-stabilized, EO-IR imaging systems
Advanced System Architectures, based in Fleet, Hampshire, United Kingdom. L-3 ASA has core capabilities in the development and through-life management of complex information systems, data fusion and tracking solutions, and interoperable secure communications systems.
Crestview Aerospace, based in northwest Florida. Crestview Aerospace provides aircraft structures, major airframe assemblies, and military aircraft modifications for leading prime contractors andOEMs in the aerospace industry. (sold in 2017 along with Vertex Aerospace and TCS)
Nautronix and MariPro, based inFremantle, Australia andSanta Barbara, California, respectively, from Nautronix Plc inAberdeen, Scotland. Nautronix and MariPro provide acoustic ranges andhydrographics to commercial and defense markets.
TRL Technology, a specialist defense electronics company based inGloucestershire, UK. TRL Technology is internationally known for development and innovation in the fields of interception, surveillance, electronic warfare, and communications.[13]
Thales Training & Simulation (TTSL – partial acquisition), aThales subsidiary manufacturing civil and militaryfull flight simulators. In August 2012, L-3 acquired TTSL's civil fixed-wing simulation business based inCrawley, UK, integrating it into L-3 Link Simulation & Training.[15][16] The division was later renamed L3 Commercial Training Solutions, and then L3 Commercial Aviation Solutions.[17] In 2023, the business was sold to private equity firmTJC, becoming part ofAcron Aviation.[18]
Aerosim Flight Academy inSanford, Florida and Aerosim Technologies inBurnsville, Minnesota.[20] Both the Sanford school and L-3 CTC were integrated into L3 Commercial Training Solutions and rebranded L3 Airline Academy.[21]
MacDonald Humfrey (Automation), aLuton,UK–based checkpoint security and automation company[22]
ExMac (Automation), aDroitwich, UK-based automated material handling company.
Ocean-Server Technology, aFall River, Massachusetts–based small business specializing in lithium-ion battery, sensor, and robotic mini-sub (UUV) products[26]
In October 2018, L3 announced an all-stock "merger of equals" with Florida-basedHarris Corporation, to be closed (subject to approvals) in mid-2019.[28] The merger was completed on June 29, 2019, and the new company,L3Harris Technologies, Inc., is based in Melbourne, Florida, where Harris was headquartered.[4]
Frank Lanza, CEO and co-founder, died on June 7, 2006. CFO Michael T. Strianese was named as interim CEO, and was later appointed chairman, president and CEO of the company on October 23, 2006. In 2015, formerLockheed Martin executive Christopher E. Kubasik was named president and COO, with Strianese remaining as chairman and CEO.[29] On July 19, 2017, Strianese announced that he would retire as CEO on December 31, 2017, to be succeeded by Kubasik, but would remain as board chairman.[30] As of January 1, 2018,Christopher E. Kubasik became chief executive officer and president of L3 Technologies.
L3 Technologies was originally named L-3 Communications for the last initials of its founders Frank Lanza, Robert LaPenta, andLehman Brothers. Despite the similarity in naming, there is no corporate connection between L3 Technologies, formerly known as L-3 Communications, and networking providerLevel 3 Communications, whose name is often abbreviated "L3" in informal industry communication.
On December 31, 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. The company's website changed from L-3com.com to L3T.com, but the company'sNYSE ticker symbol of LLL remained the same.[31]
OMNI, encryption device that addssecure voice and secure data to a standard analog telephone or modem connected computer, made in "Standard" model with a 56 kbit/s limit and "OMNIxi" with a 15 Mbit/s limit[33]
In 2010, it was announced that L3's Special Support Programs Division had been suspended by theUnited States Air Force from doing any contract work for the US federal government. A US Department of Defense investigation had reportedly found that the company had, "used a highly sensitive government computer network to collect competitive business information for its own use." A US federal criminal investigation[34] ended the temporary suspension on July 27, 2010.
On November 4, 2010, L3 issued a part purge notification to prevent future use of Chinese counterfeit parts, but did not notify its customers whose display systems suffered from much higher than expected failure rates.[35]
In 2015, L3 Technologies agreed to pay $25.6 million to settle a lawsuit with the U.S. Government. L3 was accused of knowingly providing the U.S. military with optics that failed in extreme temperatures and humid weather conditions. These sights were provided to infantry and special operations forces operating in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as civilians and law enforcement.[36]
The civil fraud lawsuit was filed byPreet Bharara, in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit alleged L3 officials have known since 2006 that the holographic sights being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan failed to perform as advertised in extreme temperature ranges. The lawsuit alleges that the FBI independently discovered the thermal drift defect, where the point-of-aim would shift when the sights were exposed to temperature extremes,[36] in March 2015 and presented EOTech with "the very same findings that the company had documented internally for years. Shortly thereafter, EOTech finally disclosed the thermal drift defect to the DoD." According to court documents, EOTech had advertised that its sights performed in temperatures ranging from -40 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and in humid conditions.[37]
US$9.573 billion[2] (2017)
US$986 million[2] (2017)
