Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), or GEC-Marconi as it was until 1998, was the defence arm of

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

(GEC). It was demerged from GEC and bought by British Aerospace (BAe) on 30 November 1999 to form BAE Systems. GEC then renamed itself

Marconi plc Marconi Communications, the former telecommunications arm of Britain's General Electric Company plc (GEC), was founded in August 1998 through the amalgamation of GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT) with other GEC subsidiaries: Marconi SpA, GE ...

. MES exists today as BAE Systems Electronics Limited, a subsidiary of BAE Systems, but the assets were rearranged elsewhere within that company. MES-related businesses include BAE Systems Submarine Solutions, BAE Systems Surface Ships, BAE Systems Insyte and

Selex ES Selex ES was a subsidiary of Finmeccanica S.p.A., active in the electronics and information technology business, based in Italy and the UK, and formed in January 2013, following Finmeccanica's decision to combine its existing SELEX Elsag an ...

(now a part of

Leonardo S.p.A. Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the eighth ...

History

MES represented the pinnacle of GEC's defence businesses which had a heritage of almost 100 years. Following GEC's acquisition of Marconi as part of

English Electric N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during t ...

in 1968, the Marconi brand was used for its defence businesses, e.g. Marconi Space & Defence Systems (MSDS), Marconi Underwater Systems Ltd (MUSL). GEC's history of military products dates back to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

with its contribution to the war effort then including radios and bulbs.

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

consolidated this position with the company involved in many important technological advances, most notably

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

. Between 1945 and GEC's demerger of its defence business in 1999, the company became one of the world's most important defence contractors. GEC's major defence related acquisitions included Associated Electrical Industries in 1967, English Electric Company (including its Marconi subsidiary) in 1968,

Yarrow Shipbuilders Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited (YSL), often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde. It is now part of BAE Systems Surface Ships, owned by BAE Systems, which has also ...

in 1985, parts of

Ferranti Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was known ...

's defence business in 1990,

Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Ltd (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built warships, civilian ships, submarines and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Construct ...

in 1995 and Kvaerner Govan in 1999. In June 1998, MES acquired

Tracor Tracor was a major North American defense electronics contractor which was acquired by Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), a subsidiary of General Electric Company plc, in 1998. Following the purchase of MES by British Aerospace in November 1999 ...

, a major American defence contractor, for US$1.4 billion.

Demerger

The 1997 merger of American corporations

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...

and

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it ...

, which followed the forming of Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defence contractor in 1995, increased the pressure on European defence companies to consolidate. In June 1997, British Aerospace Defence managing director

John Weston John Weston may refer to: Politicians *John Weston (MP for New Shoreham) (fl.1446-7) *John de Weston, MP for Derby (UK Parliament constituency) * John Weston (MP fl.1339), MP for Derby (UK Parliament constituency) * John Weston (died c. 1433), MP f ...

commented "Europe... is supporting three times the number of contractors on less than half the budget of the U.S.". European governments wished to see the merger of their defence manufacturers into a single entity, a European Aerospace and Defence Company. As early as 1995, British Aerospace and the German aerospace and defence company DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA) were said to be keen to create a transnational aerospace and defence company. Merger discussions began between British Aerospace and DASA in July 1998. A merger was agreed between British Aerospace chairman Richard Evans and DASA CEO

Jürgen Schrempp Jürgen or Jurgen is a popular masculine given name in Germany, Estonia, Belgium and the Netherlands. It is cognate with George. Notable people named Jürgen include: A *Jürgen Ahrend (born 1930), German organ builder * Jürgen Alzen (bo ...

in December 1998. GEC was also under pressure to participate in defence industry consolidation. Reporting the appointment of George Simpson as GEC managing director in 1996, ''The Independent'' had said "some analysts believe that Mr Simpson's inside knowledge of BAe, a long-rumoured GEC bid target, was a key to his appointment. GEC favours forging a national "champion" defence group with BAe to compete with the giant US organisations". When GEC put MES up for sale on 22 December 1998, BAE abandoned the DASA merger in favour of purchasing its British rival. The merger of British Aerospace and MES was announced on 19 January 1999. Evans stated that in 2004 that his fear was that an American defence contractor would acquire MES and challenge both British Aerospace and DASA. The merger created a

vertically integrated In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the suppl ...

company which ''The Scotsman'' described as " combination of British Aerospace'scontracting and platform-building skills with Marconi's coveted electronics systems capability". for example combining the manufacturer of the Eurofighter with the company that provided many of the aircraft's electronic systems; British Aerospace was MES' largest customer. In contrast, DASA's response to the breakdown of the merger discussion was to merge with Aérospatiale to create the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company ( EADS), a horizontal integration. EADS has since considered a merger with

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard ...

to create a "fully rounded" company. While MES was responsible for the majority of GEC's defence sales other GEC companies achieved defence related sales, principally

GEC Alsthom GEC or Gec may refer to: Education * Gedo Education Committee, in Somalia * Glen Eira College, in Caulfield East, Victoria, Australia * Goa Engineering College, India * Government Engineering College (disambiguation) * Guild for Exceptional ...

, GEC-Plessey Telecommunications (GPT) and GEC Plessey Semiconductors.

Organisation

Marconi Avionics BAE Systems Avionics was the avionics unit of BAE Systems until 2005, at which time it was transferred to SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems S.p.A. (initially 75% Finmeccanica and 25% BAE Systems, but since March 2007 fully owned by Finmeccani ...

* Marconi North America * Marconi Naval Systems *

Alenia Marconi Systems Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS) was a major European integrated defence electronics company and an equal shares joint venture between BAE Systems and Finmeccanica (now Leonardo S.p.A.) until its dissolution on 3 May 2005. AMS was formed in 1998 by ...

(AMS) * Matra Marconi Space *

Thomson Marconi Sonar Thomson Marconi Sonar or TMS was formed in 1996 by the merger of the sonar systems businesses of French defence electronics specialist Thomson-CSF and British company GEC-Marconi after the payment of a balance by the latter. The new company was 50 ...

* Marconi Research Centre * Marconi Radar Systems * Marconi Communications Systems

Major projects

''This is a partial list:'' * Produced 12 of the class of 16 Type 23 frigates. Also the major electronics & equipment supplier for the class. * Civil avionics, e.g.

Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap b ...

fly-by-wire systems * UK Prime Contractor on the

Horizon CNGF The Horizon class (French: Classe Horizon; Italian: Classe Orizzonte) is a class of air-defence destroyers in service with the French and Italian navies. They are designated as destroyers by the Italians and using NATO classification but are ref ...

programme until 1999. Following the withdrawal of the UK from the programme MES was awarded the subsequent

Type 45 destroyer The Type 45 destroyer, also known as the D or ''Daring'' class, is a class of six guided-missile destroyers built for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy in the early 21st century. The class is primarily designed for anti-aircraft and anti-missile ...

Prime Contractor position several days before merging with BAe. * Part of

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliz ...

ASTOR Astor may refer to: People * Astor (surname) * Astor family, a wealthy 18th-century American family who became prominent in 20th-century British politics * Astor Bennett, a character in the Showtime television series ''Dexter'' * Ástor Piazzol ...

bid team *

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

fleet submarines * Brimstone Anti-Armour Missile * TIALD

laser designator A laser designator is a laser light source which is used to designate a target. Laser designators provide targeting for laser-guided bombs, missiles, or precision artillery munitions, such as the Paveway series of bombs, AGM-114 Hellfire ...

pod *

AI.24 Foxhunter The AI.24 ''Foxhunter'' was an airborne radar carried by the Panavia Tornado ADV fighter aircraft (known as the Tornado F3 in Royal Air Force service) and gave it an all-weather, day and night, beyond-visual-range engagement capability. Pro ...

, radar for the

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

ECR-90 The Euroradar Captor is a next-generation mechanical multi-mode pulse Doppler radar designed for the Eurofighter Typhoon. Development of Captor led to the Airborne Multirole Solid State Active Array Radar (AMSAR) project which eventually produ ...

, radar for the

Eurofighter Typhoon The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonar ...

. * Member of

Boeing X-32 The Boeing X-32 is a concept demonstrator aircraft that was designed for the Joint Strike Fighter competition. It lost to the Lockheed Martin X-35 demonstrator, which was further developed into the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Developm ...

JSF development team

Naval weapons

Spearfish torpedo The Spearfish torpedo (formally Naval Staff Target 7525) is the heavy torpedo used by the submarines of the Royal Navy. It can be guided by wire or by autonomous active or passive sonar, and provides both anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and anti- ...

* Sting Ray torpedo

Spacecraft

Ariel 6 Ariel VI, known pre-launch as UK-6, was a British and American satellite launched in 1979 as part of the Ariel programme. It was operated by the Science Research Council, which became the Science and Engineering Research Council in 1981. Ariel VI ...

* Prospero X-3 * Zircon (satellite)

References

External links

Marconi Electronic Systems Part 1

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060423081706/http://www.lockheedmartin.com/wms/findPage.do?dsp=fec&ci=12498&rsbci=0&fti=112&ti=0&sc=400 Boeing, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and Raytheon to create B2B exchange for the aerospace and defense industry, powered by Microsoft] {{BAE Systems Aircraft component manufacturers of the United Kingdom Avionics companies BAE Systems subsidiaries and divisions British companies established in 1897 Companies based in Chelmsford Defunct technology companies of the United Kingdom Electronics companies of the United Kingdom Former defence companies of the United Kingdom General Electric Company Guglielmo Marconi Manufacturing companies established in 1897 Radar manufacturers Science and technology in Essex 1999 mergers and acquisitions