Exelis CEO David Melcher Talks Electronic Warfare

With the Pentagon buying fewer large pieces of hardware for the post-war years, defense companies like Exelis are thriving amid the new threat concerns: electronic warfare, networking, and ISR. CEO David Melcher told Defense One, “What we’re seeing is less demand on the product side, a little more demand on the service side.” Melcher said from night vision to radios, Exelis is focused on upgrading the items the U.S. military already owns rather than selling new ones “that might have been envisioned but are not affordable.” In the meantime, his company, which employs 20,000 people, has cut its own costs and footprint, and Melcher assumes sequestration is the environment that is here to stay. For the shutdown, Exelis’ workers were furloughed because they were kept out the job due to government furloughs, some contracts were not let and payments were delayed. “You can't be static in this business or expect that you’re not going to have to change,” said Melcher.