Harris Corp. division boosts staff in the Springs
A Harris Corp. division specializing in military communications systems doubled its staff in Colorado Springs in the past year and expects to double its size again this year, a company official said Friday.
Melbourne, Fla.-based Harris, one of the nation's largest defense contractors, has spent $3 million in the past two years remodeling a building near the Colorado Springs Airport to accommodate the growth of its Government Communications Systems Division, said Chris Forseth, regional operations manager for Harris in the Springs; the division now employs 54. The unit has grown from three employees in 2008, doubling every year after landing contracts with the Air Force Space Command and the Army Space and Missile Defense Command for military and intelligence engineering support.
“Our group tries to bring technologies developed at our Melbourne laboratory to enhance the nation’s warfighting capability. We are not trying to win contracts just to swap (the company name on the) badges of the employees that are already working on those contracts. We are trying to bring an influx of technology to create new opportunities to the region and to the space industry in general,” Forseth said Friday.
“This is space country," he said. "We are on the cutting edge and Colorado Springs is home to what we want to do in space.”
Much of the division’s work is assembling off-the-shelf computer servers into mobile and stationary racks used to control satellites, incorporating antennas and other equipment made by other Harris divisions and making sure those systems can survive in a military environment, Forseth said. The operation is expected to add another 50 employees by year’s end, expanding its work force to more than 100 people, as it wins additional work under existing contracts, options to extend those contracts as well as new awards, he said.
“Our Colorado Springs operation now provides end-to-end sustaining engineering capabilities, ranging from systems maintenance and depot-level support to engineering design and development,” Sheldon Fox, president of the Government Communications Systems Division, said in press release issued earlier week.
Harris also employs about 200 in its information technology division, located in another nearby building, to work on intelligence and technology support contracts for the Air Force, including managing the large amount of video data collected by its unmanned aircraft. The company employs more than 17,000 people in more than 150 countries and generates about $6 billion in annual revenue from sales of communications and information technology equipment and services.
—
Contact Wayne Heilman: 636-0234 Twitter @wayneheilman
Facebook Wayne Heilman
