Woodward to Move Santa Clarita Aerospace Production to Spartanburg
The energy-controls maker will shift military flight-control actuation to South Carolina and sell a smaller group of legacy products as it refines its manufacturing footprint.
Woodward, Inc. (WWD) said it will transition production out of its Santa Clarita, California, facility to streamline its aerospace portfolio and refine its manufacturing footprint, moving military fixed-wing and rotorcraft flight-control actuation to Spartanburg, South Carolina.
The Fort Collins, Colorado-based energy-controls company plans to sell the Santa Clarita campus and a smaller group of legacy commercial rotorcraft, land systems, and business-jet products in an asset purchase expected to close in fiscal year 2027.
Shawn McLevige, president of Woodward’s Aerospace segment, said the move is intended to support customers and improve the supply chain as demand rises for controls on current and next-generation commercial and military aircraft.
“This decision is in line with our strategy to continue creating value for our company and our shareholders through growth, operational excellence, and innovation. Moving this production to Spartanburg will help refine our manufacturing footprint to best support our customers and improve our supply chain as we meet increasing demand for industry-leading controls on current and next-generation commercial and military aircraft,” McLevige said.
The company framed the Santa Clarita exit as a portfolio and footprint decision rather than a product-line reversal: military fixed-wing and rotorcraft actuation continues, but from Spartanburg. The campus and the smaller legacy commercial rotorcraft, land systems, and business-jet group go to an asset buyer.
McLevige has led Aerospace since October 2025, when Woodward appointed him to the role and moved longtime Aerospace President Terry Voskuil to chief technology officer for Aerospace. The Santa Clarita plan sits in that same Aerospace leadership cycle, with the segment’s manufacturing concentrated in Spartanburg for the military actuation lines the company said it is scaling for current and next-generation aircraft.
Woodward has already used similar portfolio trims elsewhere. In January, it announced plans to wind down its on-highway natural-gas truck business in China by the end of the fiscal year after years of failed sale efforts, closing a small manufacturing facility and a limited number of sales, engineering, and product-support staff. That Industrial wind-down was described as a step to align the Industrial portfolio with priority end markets; the Santa Clarita asset sale is the Aerospace counterpart, concentrating military flight-control actuation in Spartanburg.
The asset purchase is expected to close in fiscal year 2027.