Headquarters: Edina
Founded: 1990
Revenues, 2006:  $3.5 billion
Employees: 16,500
Ticker: NYSE: ATK
Web site: www.atk.com
What it does : Develops and makes advanced weapon, propulsion, and satellite systems



Before he took charge at Edina-based Alliant Techsystems, Daniel Murphy commanded the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet. It was the culmination of a 30-year Navy career. When he retired, he got a call from Alliant’s then-CEO, Paul David Miller: Could Murphy guide the company’s first attempt at competing for a prime contract for precision-guided weapons?

Alliant, which goes by its New York Stock Exchange symbol, ATK, had begun in 1990 as a spinoff of Honeywell’s defense business and was primarily a maker of munitions. By the time Murphy joined the company in 2000, it was expanding into aerospace and commercial markets, and it was doing something more in response to decreased support for defense spending in Washington: It was looking for ways to add value to existing weapons systems, technology that would make them more effective.

The Autonomous Naval Support Round program that Murphy was asked to lead was the first GPS-guided weapon system that ATK produced, improving the accuracy of rounds fired from the Navy’s five-inch-diameter guns. Its success netted Murphy a promotion, from general manager of an ATK ballistics laboratory to president of its new Precision Systems Group.

Now known as the Mission Systems Group, that business has grown to 5,800 employees and more than $1.2 billion in annual sales of advanced weapons and satellite technologies. Murphy’s leadership as group president led to being named CEO of the company in 2003 and adding chairman to his title in 2005. Meanwhile, the scale of the Mission Systems business has been matched by ATK’s other two businesses: The Ammunitions Systems Group (5,900 employees, $1.3 billion in sales), which is the largest maker of ammunition in the world; and the Launch Systems Group (4,800 employees, $1.1 billion in sales), which produces solid rocket motor systems for space vehicles, strategic missiles, and missile defense. Murphy has been a key player in making ATK a competitor for Raytheon, Boeing, and other giants of the defense industry.

“We have developed a unique niche within the military establishment by enhancing the performance of existing platforms,” Murphy says. “In other words, we take things that we do well and find new applications for them that allow existing infrastructure to be used in a new way. That’s core to this company.”

One example: NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) wanted a better launch vehicle for future moon and Mars projects, but the cost to develop something entirely new would be staggering. ATK told NASA it didn’t have to start from scratch. The company’s plan to reconfigure and add to the existing rocket motor system will save NASA billions of dollars on its Ares I program.

ATK will be shooting for the moon, too, with Murphy focused on growth in precision weapons, the commercial aerospace market, satellite capabilities, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance systems for aircraft, and ammunition for law enforcement and hunters.