Once known as a leading maker of tires, the former B.F. Goodrich slowly developed a more diversified portfolio of products and businesses. But by 2001, it was out of the tire business altogether, and focused on aerospace and defense.

Now headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Goodrich moved its surveillance and reconnaissance systems business to Omni Way in Chelmsford two years ago. The plant develops high-performance cameras and ground stations for capturing and interpreting reconnaissance and surveillance data from high altitudes.

The Chelmsford operation has grown to 225 people, and will grow further after last month's announcement that it will acquire New Jersey-based Sensors Unlimited Inc. for $60 million.

“Now, with this new partnership, a whole new range of technology opens up for us.” Bergeron said. He said Sensors Unlimited makes so-called “shortwave” infrared technologies.

“Either Goodrich has just bought a business that is quite profitable or, more likely, they are acquiring Sensors Unlimited for their technology to fill a gap,” in its array of optical products and services, Nesbit said.

Sensors Unlimited is in the business of capturing the imperceptible and making it visible, according to to its CEO and co-founder, Marshal Cohen.

The transaction is expected to close by year's end. Bergeron anticipates that the Sensors management team will remain in place after the acquisition. The acquisition calls for the New Jersey firm, which employs about 50 people, to be operated as a separate business within the SRS division.

Goodrich's Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems division started during the 1950s as Itek, a small company commissioned by the government to track the Soviet Union's Sputnik project. Much of Itek's early work focused on developing advanced optics that would enable photography from high altitude orbits.

In 1983, Itek was acquired by Litton Industries, and began work on Ronald Reagan's “Star Wars” initiative, a program to develop space-based weapons. In the early ‘90s, as the Soviet Union dissolved and Star Wars funding dried up, aerospace giant Hughes Electronics acquired Itek from Litton.

A few years later, much of Hughes Electronics was acquired by Raytheon's Optical Systems Division. Finally, Raytheon sold the Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems division to Goodrich.

While Nesbit cautions that double-digit growth in the defense industry is unsustainable, given various pressures on the federal budget, Bergeron predicts that the division's near-term growth will be derived from international sales of its DB110 product. He cites pending deals with South Korea, Greece and Pakistan as likely to close within the next 12 months.

Sales for Goodrich's Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems division are expected to reach $95 million this year, a 35 percent increase from 2004. Management forecasts that 2006 revenues will reach $135 million.

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