CBJ: 60 years of Sperry Marine life

Workers in Albemarle County are helping to keep military and commercial ships around the world afloat and outfitted with the latest technology.

Sperry Marine, part of Northrop Grumman, is celebrating the company’s 60th anniversary of the launch of its first marine radar. Marine radars use radio waves to locate and track objects around ships.

Although Sperry Marine in Albemarle didn’t start working with marine radar until later, the company’s U.K.-based Decca Marine Group introduced its first commercial marine radar product in 1949.

The two companies merged into one in 1997 and were bought by Northrop Grumman in 2001.

“We are delighted to take advantage of this important milestone to honor the long tradition of engineering innovation and customer service embodied in our radar product line,” said J. Nolasco DaCunha, vice president of Sperry Marine. “Over the past six decades, our research and development team has been responsible for important innovations in marine radar technology.”

The company creates marine radar for the U.S. military, more than 70 militaries around the world and commercial companies such as cruise lines and shipping companies, said Frank Soccoli, director of worldwide marketing for Sperry Marine.

“Radar is all about performance and how quickly you can determine something is there,” Soccoli said.

Although radars created for the U.S. military have specific and unique components, many of the standard equipment features are available on all Sperry Marine radar. Engineers use technology created for the commercial marine radar and enhance it for military usage, Soccoli said.

“We can leverage technology and resources from one to another,” Soccoli said. “It’s much easier to create something commercial and enhance it for the military. We try to maximize the exportability of our products.”

The company’s work in marine radar brought the first true motion radar in 1956, the anti-collision radar in 1969, the type-approved color radar in 1982 and computer-controlled automatic clutter suppression in 1998.

The company has sold more than 150,000 marine radars around the world in the last 60 years.

Although most of the work in Albemarle focuses on U.S. military contracts, Sperry employees here service equipment and train sailors to work on equipment for both military and commercial ships.

The company also offers gyrocompasses, autopilot and steering control systems, communication equipment, navigation systems, ship stabilizers and defense systems and voyage data systems.

Sperry Marine’s headquarters is based in Albemarle with offices in 16 countries and service depots in 250 locations around the world. Although the company has experienced a decline in the commercial business due to the bad economy, they have worked to maintain and enhance equipment on ships already afloat.

Sperry engineers are working on VisionMaster FT, a series of technology that connects a ship with shore-based systems. Some of the features of the new equipment will allow sailors to make the best usage of their fuel and provide online diagnostics on equipment.

“[This technology] is the heir of this great tradition of innovation,” DaCunha said. “With VisionMaster FT, we have pushed the technology envelope even further by integrating the radar more thoroughly and completely with electronic chats and other navigation sensors into a seamless bridge navigation system.”

The company, which has mentoring programs in local high schools and works with students at the University of Virginia, has 865 local employees (out of a company-wide total of 1,500). Officials expect to continue growing in the area. Next year, the company will celebrate 100 years of being in business and more than 50 of those spent in the Charlottesville region.

“We’ve been a major employer in the Charlottesville area for more than 50 years and we’re continuing to create new jobs every year,” Soccoli said. “We’re always on the lookout for qualified engineers, but we also often have openings in [other areas].”