BAE Systems plc announced on Monday that the United States Department of Commerce granted it $35 million to modernize the Microelectronics Center in Nashua, New Hampshire. The funds were the first ones allocated from the US CHIPS and Science Act to any company.
"BAE Systems' MEC is [a] 110,000-square-foot, Department of Defense (DoD)-accredited, semiconductor chip fabrication and foundry facility that produces technology for DoD applications. The MEC develops advanced semiconductor technologies beyond those available commercially to meet demanding military requirements. It is one of the only domestic defense-centric six-inch Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) wafer foundries," the company explained.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo noted that "as national security becomes as much about the chips inside of our weapons systems as the weapons systems themselves, this first CHIPS announcement shows how central semiconductors are to our national defense."
