On Wednesday, January 22, ATK’s Defense Electronic Systems (DES) hosted a ceremony commemorating the opening of its new operations facility with the lease and conversion of 120,000 square feet of industrial space in Northridge, California.

DES is consolidating into a single building from five buildings in two different locations in southern California. This will allow DES to centralize its team members to support increased production.

The first phase of the move was completed in December 2013 with approximately 200 employees relocated to the Northridge location. An additional 80 employees and production operations will relocate in May when construction is completed.

Elected officials, valued suppliers and Navy representatives attended the commemorative ribbon cutting ceremony in honor of the milestone. Attendees included 30th Congressional District U.S. Representative Brad Sherman and Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitchell Englander.

“This is a very special milestone for ATK as the new facility will support the increased production needs of fielding AARGM’s much-needed capability for the warfighter. In addition, we will continue to increase business across our largely southern California supply base,” said Bill Kasting, Vice President and General Manager of ATK’s Defense Electronic Systems division.

DES Northridge employees are responsible for research, development and manufacturing of the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) for the U.S. Navy. AARGM is a supersonic, air-launched tactical missile system, upgrading legacy AGM-88 HARM systems. It launches from the FA-18 Hornet fighter and the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jet, as well as the European Tornado ECR fighter jet used by the Italian Air Force.

AARGM is a U.S. Navy and Italian Air Force international cooperative major acquisition program with the U.S. Navy as the executive agent. AARGM achieved Initial Operational Capability in July 2012 and has been in Full Rate Production since August 2012. The program is on schedule and on budget, and planned to achieve Full Operational Capability in September 2014.