Microwave Journal
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Companies in Transition

February 1, 2009

In this article we offer a brief look into the past of two companies whose long history in developing microwave technology and defense systems eventually brought them together. From humble beginnings, Cobham plc and M/A-COM grew, achieved industry leadership status and weathered decades of economic change through their innovations and strategic acquisitions. This past year, Cobham acquired M/A-COM’s component businesses (from Tyco Electronics) to further its position as a premier supplier of defense subsystems. The commercial segment, now called M/A-COM Technology Solutions, will be spun-off as an independent company. The Journal has covered M/A-COM at critical stages in its history with guest editorials by president Dana Atchley appearing in our first issue (July/August 1958), co-founder and vice-president Richard Walker writing about the company’s shifted focus to MIC technology (January 1968), president Frank Brand writing about the company’s embrace of MMIC and GaAs technologies (February 1978) and CEO Thomas Vanderslice writing on the re-structuring of the company to apply its core strengths toward both the defense and commercial markets (March 1990). M/A-COM’s dedication to R&D will serve both companies well.


Cobham began as an aerospace job shop in the UK and has grown to become a vital link in many of the world’s most advanced military and civil aerospace programs. In 1927, Alan Cobham, a well-known aeronautical adventurer and collaborator with aircraft manufacturer Geoffrey de Havilland, formed his own company—Alan Cobham Aviation Ltd. The company soon merged with others in the interest of developing intercontinental “flying boat” service. The focus on long-haul flight led to their developing and purveying in-flight refueling technology, eventually working with the British government during World War II. At that time, the company was called the (Flight Refueling) FR Group. After the war, the US government expressed interest in using aerial refueling to extend the range of its B-29 bombers, and FR Group landed the contract.

In the summer of 1950, engineers Vessarios Chigas, Louis Roberts, Hugh Wainwright and Richard M. Walker founded Microwave Associates in 2800 square feet of rented floor space in Boston, MA. Leveraging their experience working at the MIT Radiation Laboratory during World War II, their plan was to provide microwave consulting, R&D and to establish a line of millimeter-wave components. In the first year, the company did R&D work for the US Army Signal Corps, including circular waveguide elements and shortly entered the electron tube field, winning a contract for two magnetron types from the Signal Corps. In its first year of business, the company did $80,000 worth of business according to the company profile that appeared in the third issue of Microwave Journal (January 1959). When the article was published, the company had surpassed the $5 M per year mark.

In the 1960s, as defense work was drying up in the UK, Cobham (FR Group) diversified and began marketing a switch from its fueling systems and thus entered the electronics field. As the aerospace industry heated up again and several R&D projects came to fruition in the mid to late 1970s, the company geared up for rapid growth among its three divisions: nuclear and industrial business; military systems; and aerospace components. However, the company’s electronics operation struggled among the commercial electronics industry’s fast pace growth. Nuclear plant components also suffered due to inconsistent government policies and so the company shifted its efforts toward defense. By 1980, the flight operations division expanded its range of services beyond aerial towing and achieved profits of £3 M on turnover of £19 M despite defense cut-backs. Aerospace components accounted for 40 percent of turnover; military systems, approximately 30 percent.

Meanwhile in the US, Microwave Associates, through heavy investment in research and development throughout the 1960s and 1970s, established itself as a leader in developing and manufacturing RF, microwave and millimeter-wave semiconductors, components and technologies. The advanced R&D allowed M/A-COM to be among the first microwave companies to make the jump from waveguide-based components to MIC and MMIC technology. By 1978, the company changed its name to M/A-COM Inc. to represent its move into the communications market. By 1980 through its various operating companies, M/A-COM was among the world’s leading producers of microwave components for the defense and commercial telecommunications markets.

By the early 1980s, Cobham (still known as the FR Group) entered the US components market with the purchase of Stanley Aviation and Chelton, a leading maker of aircraft antennas, in 1989. Its aerial target offerings proliferated, culminating in the Advanced Subsonic Aerial Target (ASAT) system. It also pushed its military products abroad while searching for new opportunities and the group continued to buy businesses that would help this growth. The company’s presence in the US grew through these acquisitions and by teaming up with
key US defense contractors. Successful equipment deployments in both the Falkland and Gulf Wars helped secure Cobham’s status among defense prime contractors and those responsible for military procurement. The trend in the aircraft industry was for prime contractors to outsource ever larger assemblies to vendors and so the FR Group directed much of its efforts towards upgrades and upgradeable products, winning significant defense contracts in the mid to late 1990s. With its operations expanded far beyond its flight refueling core, FR Group renamed itself Cobham plc in November 1994.

In 1995, M/A-COM was acquired by AMP Inc., a leader in electrical and electronic connection devices and interconnection systems, as part of that company’s move into the wireless interconnection components market and to strengthen its subsystems development capabilities. Then in 1999, AMP merged with Tyco International Ltd. As a unit of Tyco Electronics, M/A-COM would continue to serve the wireless telecommunications, aerospace, defense and automotive markets.

Meanwhile, Cobham continued its growth through acquisition, buying Pressure Technologies, Conax, Hyper Technologies and certain product lines from Avionics Controls, while the Chelton division bought several radio product lines from Allied Signal and Cobham bought two other English firms: Credowan Limited, a small microwave components supplier, and the larger European Antennas Limited.

In this decade, the size of Cobham’s acquisitions has grown impressively large. In 2004, Cobham purchased REMEC Defense & Space to double the revenues from its radar business and boost its Chelton business. In 2007, the company purchased the Surveillance and Attack business unit of BAE Systems, which it renamed Sensor and Antenna Systems, Lansdale Inc. (after the unit’s Lansdale, PA location). Lansdale is now a world leading developer of Electronic Warfare (EW) technology and supplier of EW subsystems for military aircraft.

Last May, Cobham Defense Electronics Systems (CDES) announced that it was buying Tyco Electronics’ Aerospace & Defense and Commercial products businesses. Combining M/A-COM’s technology with Cobham’s REMEC business would give the company the additional microwave technical expertise, enhanced subsystem capability and strong customer relationships required to accelerate development of its advanced products for microwave front-ends for missiles, electronic warfare, and space and ground-based communication systems. The commercial part of the business, M/A-COM Technology Solutions, is currently being run outside of the operating divisions of Cobham and will be resold. The acquired commercial business is operating on a standalone basis with shared facilities and functions separated to allow for the divestment of M/A-COM Technology Solutions (Tyco Electronics retained the M/A-COM land mobile radio group and sold the automotive sensors group to Autoliv of Sweden).