He recruited Frank W. McBee, Chester McKinney, and Jess Stanbrough as its founders, and these four added an attorney friend, Harry Pollard, and machinist Byron Grisham, Jr.

In 1960 the company was renamed Texas Research Associates and in 1962 merged with Textran Corporation (formed by physicist O. J. Baltzer, mechanical engineer Marcel Gres, mathematician Gene Smith, and accountant George Strandtmann) to become Tracor.

[1] In September 1996, the company acquired Cordant Inc., a privately held provider of computer services to the government[2] Tracor had a 30-year history of support of the Aegis defense system on United States Navy cruisers and destroyers.

Tracor had great success in its later years designing and producing flare and chaff cartridges and their dispenser systems for military aircraft in defense against infrared- and radar-targeting missiles.

[3] Following a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) (to ensure there were no national security implications) GEC completed the transaction in June 1998.

In the years since, BAE Systems has pursued growth in America more aggressively than any other area in order to take advantage of the large U.S. procurement and research budgets.