PGC wins $425 million contract for guided missile destroyers from US

The U.S. Department of Defense recently named Philadelphia Gear Corporation as supplier of the main reduction gears in the construction of three new Arleigh Burke Class Guided Missile Destroyers. The project is valued at more than $80 million and includes options for additional ships, which, if fully exercised, would bring the cumulative total of the agreement to more than $425 million. According to Philadelphia Gear President Carl Rapp, the company has a storied past with the U.S. Navy, having supplied gears, sprockets and transmissions for ships since the First World War. During World War II, the company’s manufacturing expertise was used to build large scale ring gears used to rotate battleship gun turrets and worm gears for hydraulic systems on Navy Destroyers. The company’s role in defense has grown since that time, and Philadelphia Gear now specializes in the design and manufacture of Main Reduction Gears (MRGs) for many front line combat and support vessels. Earlier this year, Philadelphia Gear announced plans to move its West Coast operations from Lynwood, California to a renovated facility in Santa Fe Springs. The new 120,000 sq. ft. facility is slated to open in the third quarter of 2010 and will house more than 80 percent of the manufacturing work for the DDG program and all assembly and test activities.