Plessey bought Decca Radar for £4.5million (£75million in today’s values) on 10th March 1965.
At that time, Decca Radar supplied approximately half the world’s shipping with its equipment. Its technology was also used at airports, by the military, and the company supplied meteorological equipment for weather forecasting.
The considerable start up costs for Decca Radar’s “ambitious” Isle of Wight project were said to have caused losses to the Decca company, forcing the sale to Plessey.
A spokesman for Plessey was optimistic for the future of its radar technology, stating:
“In the light of the current impressive activity at this establishment, and the fact that the Plessey Group is in a position to send additional work there almost immediately, we look forward to continued expansion and satisfactory profit performance in this and future years.”
Decca Radar had bought the Somerton Airport site on April 1st 1959. The government had designated the Isle of Wight as a “depressed-employment area” due to the run down of J S White and Saunders Roe – who produced warships and military aircraft – leaving skilled craftsmen and engineers seeking employment.
Decca Radar had a laboratory and production facility built at Somerton at a cost of half-a-million pounds, which opened on 17th July 1964. The new facilities were claimed to have been “one of the most modern in Europe”, with 75% of the production being exported abroad to 30 countries. It was hoped that the development would lead to the employment of at least 600 local people and possibly more when production was ramped up.
However, the history of Plessey in Cowes was not entirely happy. In 1968, many of its workforce from the Somerton factory went on strike over pay and conditions. The industrial dispute lasted 6 months, with many of the strikers suffering severe financial hardship. Some did not return to the site after the strike ended.
The strike ended with a modest pay rise for the workers and recognition for their union Draughtsmen and Allied Technicians (DATA).
23 years later – in 1988 – Plessey Radar Company was taken over by GEC/Siemens, with the Somerton site coming under the control of the German company. At that time, 1,300 employees were engaged in the design and manufacture of radar. In 1990, the name was changed to Siemens-Plessey Systems.
Further changes in the ownership followed, with its sale to British Aerospace in 1999 and the company becoming known as BAE Systems.
Today, the Somerton site in Cowes – as part of BAE Systems – supplies and supports radars on every major Royal Navy warship.
