Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

named after inventor

Charles Litton Sr. Charles Vincent Litton Sr. (1904–1972) was an engineer and inventor from the area now known as Silicon Valley. Biography Early life Charles Vincent Litton was born on March 13, 1904, in San Francisco, California. His mother was Alice J. Vincent ...

During the 1960s, the company began acquiring many unrelated firms and became one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. At its peak, in addition to many defense-related companies, it also owned both Royal Typewriters and Adler, Moffat major appliances, Stouffer's

frozen food Freezing food preserves it from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved grains and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing food slows decompositi ...

s, and various office equipment and furniture companies. Like many conglomerates, the company suffered significant declines in the 1970s, selling off many of its unrelated brands and had largely returned to its defense roots by the 1980s. The company continued to shrink after the ending of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

and by the late 1990s was a corporate takeover target. The company was purchased by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military tech ...

in 2001.

History

Litton Industries was originally established as an

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

company building

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation ...

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

s and

electronic warfare Electronic warfare (EW) is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EM spectrum) or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent ...

equipment. They diversified and became a much bigger business, with major

shipyards A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance ...

, and manufacturing

microwave oven A microwave oven (commonly referred to as a microwave) is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce ...

s. It was founded in 1953 by American business executive Charles Bates "Tex" Thornton alongside his associates

Roy Ash Roy Lawrence Ash (October 20, 1918December 14, 2011) was the co-founder and president of the American company Litton Industries and director of the Office of Management and Budget from February 2, 1973 until February 3, 1975, during the administr ...

and Hugh Jamieson. Headquartered in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, the original name of the company was 'Electro Dynamics Corporation.' In 1954, with a loan from the

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, ...

, Thornton acquired the

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as ...

producer 'Litton Industries Inc' from its founder

for $1.5 million and subsequently adopted its name. Although Litton Industries lacked capital in the beginning, Thornton thought that the U.S. Department of Defense would need more sophisticated weapons and that the demand for another large electronics company would increase. During the years, Litton Industries acquired several other smaller companies and had merged with Monroe Calculating Machine. Monroe used Litton's technological assets and Litton required Monroe's sales and service outlets. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, 50% of Litton's business was with the U.S. Government; besides calculators, they were also producing inertial

guidance system A guidance system is a virtual or physical device, or a group of devices implementing a controlling the movement of a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or any other moving object. Guidance is the process of calculating the changes in po ...

s for aircraft,

potentiometer A potentiometer is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. The measuring instrum ...

duplexer A duplexer is an electronic device that allows bi-directional ( duplex) communication over a single path. In radar and radio communications systems, it isolates the receiver from the transmitter while permitting them to share a common antenna. ...

s, etc. In 1961, Litton acquired

Ingalls Shipbuilding Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States, originally established in 1938, and now part of HII. It is a leading producer of ships for the United States Navy, and at 12,500 employees, the second largest ...

for $8 million and subsequently ventured into the production of submarines and oil-drilling equipment. By 1963, Litton Industries reached $500 million with a revenue of $393.8 million. In 1973, after several years of disappointing sales, Thornton replaced Ash with Fred O'Green as president of the company. With the new strategy, Litton sold some of its profit-losing subsidiaries and focused on the profitable ones. The company also succeeded to make a $1.6 billion deal with the Saudi Arabian Air Force. In December 1964 Litton acquired Royal McBee. The profits of the company increased from $44 million in 1979 to $78 million in 1983. During the 1980s, Litton dropped its businesses in publishing, medical products, office furniture, and microwaves and shifted the production to sophisticated technology. As a result of that, the company bought the electronic firms Itek Corp. and Core Laboratories. In the early 1990s, Litton Industries split into separate

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

and

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

companies. The US$2 billion commercial business, which included Litton's

oilfield A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presenc ...

services, business, and automated

assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in se ...

operations, was named

Western Atlas Western Atlas was an oilfield services company formed in 1987 through the merger of Western Geophysical (owned by Litton Industries) and Dresser Atlas. The resulting company was a joint venture of Litton and Dresser Industries until it was spun ...

, Inc. In 1998, Litton Industries bought

TASC, Inc. TASC, Inc., formerly known as The Analytic Sciences Corporation, Inc., is an American private defense contractor based outside Washington, D.C., in Chantilly, Virginia. Northrop Grumman owned TASC from 2001 to 2009, when it sold the unit to comply ...

In 2000, TASC sold three stand-alone commercial operations: Adesso Software, WSI (Weather Services International) Corporation and Emerge. The company reported sales of $5.6 billion and a net income of $218 million for the 2000 fiscal year. On December 21, 2000, in a joint statement, Litton Industries and

announced that the latter will acquire Litton Industries shares in a transaction worth $5.1 billion. The transaction was completed on May 31, 2001 and Northrop Grumman officially acquired Litton Industries.

Divisions

A provisional list of Litton Industries' major divisions: *LITEF GmbH (

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

) *Litton Advanced Systems *Litton Aero Products *Litton Automated Marine Systems (AMS) **Sperry Marine **C.Plath **Load monitoring System for Spanish Product Carriers (IMP-16 based embedded system w/real-time monitoring and calculation of shear forces and bending moment for load officers) **

Decca Radar The Decca Radar company was a British manufacturer of radar systems. There were originally two divisions, Marine and Heavy Radar, with separate product lines. The latter was sold to Plessey in 1965, and the term "Decca Radar" normally refers to ...

(formerly a division of Racal) ***Decca Navigator, a historical VLF navigation system *Litton Bionetics, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD *Litton Computer Services *Litton Data Systems *Litton Electron Devices → now

L3 Technologies L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training d ...

, Electron Devices: Torrance CA & Williamsport PA *Litton Electro-Optical Systems Incorporated *Litton Encoder *Litton Guidance and Control Systems *Litton Industries, Potentiometer Division, Mount Vernon, NY *Litton Integrated Systems *Litton Italia *Litton Kester *Litton Network Access Systems *Litton PRC *Litton Ship Systems **Avondale

Shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance ...

s **Ingalls Shipyards *Litton Space Systems *Litton Systems Canada *Litton Westrex *TELDIX *

, a joint venture formed with Dresser Industries, including former Litton subsidiary Western Geophysical. Spun off in 1994.

References

External links

*
Northrop Grumman website

LITTON Industries Alumni
- LITTON Industries Alumni group on LinkedIn {{Authority control Aerospace companies of the United States American companies established in 1953 Avionics companies Companies based in Los Angeles Defense companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles Electronics companies of the United States History of the San Fernando Valley Manufacturing companies based in Los Angeles Manufacturing companies based in Wisconsin Manufacturing companies established in 1953 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2001 Northrop Grumman Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles Technology companies established in 1953 Woodland Hills, Los Angeles Technology companies disestablished in 2001 1953 establishments in California 2001 disestablishments in California 2001 mergers and acquisitions

History

Divisions

See also

References

Further reading

External links