History
In 1951, Finmeccanica and the United States-based company Raytheon formed Microlambda, a joint venture based in Fusaro near Naples, operating in the field of applied electronics and producing radar systems under licence for land and naval applications.
In 1956, a new company, SINDEL, was established with capital provided by Edison (hydroelectric and gas distribution). Several engineers and technicians from Microlambda moved to the company which was specialised in professional electronics.
In 1960, an international agreement led to the creation of Selenia – Associated Electronics Industries, a joint venture focused on civil and military surveillance systems whose shareholders were Finmeccanica (40%), Raytheon (40%) and Edison (20%).
In 1990, Selenia merged with Aeritalia, an Italian aerospace company, forming Alenia, which had more than 30,000 employees, dealing with aeronautics, radars, naval systems, missiles, space applications, aircraft engines, as well as systems for environmental protection. In the late 1990s Alenia was split into two companies in order to focus on its core activities more effectively: Alenia Aerospazio specialising in the design and production of aircraft and space systems, and Alenia Difesa dealing with radars, missiles, naval systems, avionics, together with the company Otobreda.
In the mid-1990s, the management of Alenia Difesa decided to form an international alliance. The chosen partner was the British firm GEC-Marconi, and Alenia Marconi Systems (later AMS) came into being in 1998 with shareholding divided equally between Finmeccanica and GEC-Marconi. A few months later, Marconi merged with British Aerospace, forming BAE Systems. In 2005 Finmeccanica acquired BAE Systems' interests in the Italian operations of Alenia Marconi Systems, together with BAE Systems' UK-based Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Air Traffic Control (ATC) (former Air Traffic Management and Airport Systems Division) and the USA (former ASI Inc.), and SELEX Sistemi Integrati was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Finmeccanica.
On 1 July 2010 the Defence, Logistics and Environment operations of Elsag Datamat were transferred to SELEX Sistemi Integrati, together with Elsag's subsidiary Space Software Italia and the activities related to the PAR (Precision Approach Radar) radar systems for surface, land and naval applications, formerly owned by SELEX Galileo.
Read more about this topic: SELEX Sistemi Integrati
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