Airline Antenna Maker Retools to Fit Military Specs By CARLOS MARTINEZ Staff Reporter When sales to commercial airlines and private plane builders fell by nearly 20 percent last year, Chatsworth-based aviation antenna-maker Sensor Systems Inc. turned to the military to make up the lost revenue. The company, which makes 66 percent of all radio antennas for military and civilian aircraft in the country, struggled with a decline in orders from commercial firms after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks sent the commercial aircraft industry into a tailspin. As commercial orders slowed or were canceled, Sensor made its bid to improve military sales by modifying a number of its products for military use. “We were really concerned about the business, but we thought the military could give us an opportunity,” said Tom Nixon, director of military sales for the company. Sensor Systems had already begun developing communications and guidance system technology for military aircraft and munitions, in an effort to make so-called dumb bombs smart. “We managed to take off-the-shelf products into useful military technology,” Nixon said. “We felt that we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel to give them a product.” By adapting its electronic radio antennas from commercial aircraft for use on sophisticated jet fighters like the F-16 and F-15, the company has grown its military business from about 20 percent five years ago to about 27 percent now. That business figures to increase as the U.S. Air Force goes forward with plans to move much of its existing arsenal to bombs that can be guided to their target by computer. “With the Global Positioning System, these bombs in some ways are superior to laser-guided missiles, which don’t work well in fog, for instance,” said Michael S. Crow, Sensor’s director of marketing, referring to bombs guided through an uplink with orbiting satellites. “In our new war on terrorism, no company is better positioned to provide the antennas our military needs to guide smart bombs, unmanned aircraft and other weapons,” said Si Robin, vice president and company CEO. Edward Aldridge, Defense Department acquisitions chief, said the U.S. military has asked defense contractors to produce more precision-guided munitions. The request comes as Congress debates a proposal to fund the purchase of more high-tech weapons, such as laser-guided bombs and modified rockets and bombs that could be guided to their targets, Aldridge said. The funding, if approved, could mean millions in sales for the company, Nixon said, noting that it could pave the way for developing more guidance systems for bombs that otherwise would be dropped from planes without any guidance electronics. This year, the company projects military sales at about $3 million, compared to $2.2 million last year, said Penelope Von Kalinowski, the company’s director of external affairs. “And we expect our military-related revenue to continue to grow in the next few years,” she said. In 2001, the privately held company grossed $29.9 million, with projected revenue this year to be about the same, Von Kalinowski said. Allen Haggerty, a consultant and recently retired Boeing Co. vice president, said firms like Sensor are part of a new wave of military contractors that will produce and design products cheaply and more efficiently for the military.