Lockheed to Shut Down MDB Systems in Orange

Lockheed Corp. said Friday that it will close its MDB Systems Inc. division in Orange and consolidate its operations at a $1.8-million facility to be built in Nevada, just south of Reno.

MDB employs about 80 people in the manufacturing plant in Orange. Larry Brown, director of marketing, said the company will offer all of those employees jobs at the Reno facility, though that operation will employ only 100 people.

Glen Williamson was appointed president of MountainGate Data Systems, a new subsidiary that will combine MDB and another Lockheed company, Cherokee Data Systems in Boulder, Colo. Operations of both companies will be consolidated at Reno.

MDB is scheduled to move from Orange to Reno next summer, Brown said.

The division manufactures a device that makes computer disk drives portable so that they can be pulled out of computer terminals and moved to other computers or stored in secure places.

“We haven’t decided on an exact timetable for the moves,” Williamson said. “It is likely the Orange employment will decline and (the facility) eventually close.”

Lockheed, the nation’s ninth-largest defense contractor, said it has bought eight acres in Nevada for a 55,000-square-foot plant.

The facility will develop, make and distribute computer disk drives for such uses as desktop publishing and video editing.