On Oct. 21, 17 Alfred University students in Associate Professor of History Andrew Kless’ Modern Warfare history class visited L3Harris Technologies’ facility near Rochester, where they learned about technological advancements in warfare-specific communications equipment.
Students in the Modern Warfare class taught by Andrew Kless (third from left), Alfred University associate professor of history, outside tactical communications equipment manufacturer L3Harris Technologies’ Jefferson Road Operations Center (JROC) in Henrietta, NY.
L3Harris Technologies is a major producer of tactical communications equipment. The students visited the company’s Jefferson Road Operations Center (JROC) in Henrietta, where L3Harris JROC Pioneer Focus Factory Director Dennis Darrow briefed the students on new trends in modern warfare including drone and counter drone technology and L3Harris’ domestic and international customer base.
Darrow led a tour of the JROC factory where tactical radios and equipment are assembled. Highlights included holding a radio component the size of a grain of sand; seeing first responder and military radios that had been damaged in disasters and combat; and how several football fields worth of production lines could be folded into a small space through L3Harris’ Smart Manufacturing Cell configuration.
Students were welcomed by employees throughout the tour, with one L3Harris employee, a former Alfred University graduate, giving a loud “Go Alfred” shoutout to the students as they passed by.
“Our visit gave us a firsthand look at the scale and complexity of operations at L3Harris, including how the communications equipment used by our military is manufactured,” said Maddax King a junior history major with minors in adolescent education and global studies minor. “It was interesting to see how the different pieces of the process come together under the different sections of the factory floor.”
Kless’ Modern Warfare class examines the development of warfare from the 1990s to the present.
