Printable Version
Subscribe to Newsletter & Releases

Locally based M2 Global Technology Ltd. is banking on a growing book of business to propel its growth over the next three years.

Douglas Carlberg, president and CEO of M2 Global, says as those orders begin to come in the door, the company wants to be ready.  Part of that game plan calls for expanding the company’s North Side facilities located at 5714 Epsilon.  The company currently occupies a 25,000-square-foot facility that houses all of its operations — electronics manufacturing, welding, mechanical assembly and sheet-metal services.

Carlberg says future plans call for adding a separate building on the company’s five-acre site — three acres of which are currently vacant.  The new building would be connected to M2 Global’s current facilities with a walkway.

The anticipation of faster growth comes as the company nears the end of its participation in the U.S. Department of Defense Mentor-Protégé program.

The program is designed to help small businesses further develop and refine their manufacturing and management processes in order to better serve key aerospace, defense and commercial markets.

Over the past year, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics has assisted and guided M2 Global through the program, helping it certify its processes in the areas of prime and finish paint, fuel-tank coatings, conductivity, hardness testing and metal-chem film.

Carlberg says his company hopes to complete the certification of the last two processes — metal-anodizing and heat-treating — by August.

Proven Record

Samuel Evans, director of small business and non-production procurement for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, says it chose to sponsor M2 Global’s participation in the program because of its proven performance record.

“We’re quite selective about whom we do the program with because there has to be the right culture and the commitment to the program has to be mutual,” Evans says.  “We saw in M2 a company with excellent potential, the facilities and the equipment.  It had already proven itself with its performance and ... had excelled in the work that we had given them.”

Carlberg says he’s honored to have had his company selected for the program and realizes the assist from Lockheed bolsters his company’s future prospects.

“Right now we provide some 300 different parts for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 joint strike fighter program,” Carlberg says.  “Our goal is to increase that number to 1,000 within the next 24 months as Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program ramps up from low-rate production to full-rate production.”

Lockheed Martin holds the contract, estimated at $298 billion for its duration, to develop and to produce the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.  Over the next 40 years, some 2,443 F-35s are expected to come online and serve as the backbone of Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps fighter fleets.

An additional 700 of these aircraft are expected to be operated by allied nations.

Growing Demand

As orders for these aircraft increase, the company expects its demand for parts to intensify.

“The forecast depends on funding from the government.  But if the production rate goes according to expectations, F-35 vendors (like M2 Global) will need to prepare ahead of time to accommodate the parts that Lockheed Martin will need to keep on schedule,” says Chris Geisel, F-35 program spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.

As a result of participating in the mentor program, Carlberg says, his company has already been asked to serve as a supplier to Greenville, Texas-based aircraft modification company L-3 Communications Integrated Systems.

“We started work with L-3 in March (of this year). Northup Grumman is also looking at us,” he adds. “This program has potentially opened a lot of new doors for us.”

M2 Global also has been a small-business supplier for Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-22 Raptor aircraft programs since 2006.

M2 Global Technology Ltd. is a service-disabled, veteran-owned engineering and contract manufacturer of satellite, microwave, TV broadcast, and radio subsystems.




Contact Information