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Amca, a Los Angeles-based aerospace and defense company, has acquired Payne Magnetics of Covina, California from its second-generation owner, Jon Payne. Amca acquires legacy aerospace suppliers and equips them to rapidly design, qualify, and manufacture components that reduce supply chain risk across the industry.
Last week, the company announced its acquisition of Electrocube, its first in the critical power electronics sector, with a history of delivering its flagship foil-wound transformers for dozens of use cases across nearly every Boeing aircraft. Payne Magnetics substantially bolsters these power electronics capabilities, enabling Amca to offer one of the industry's widest ranges of power solutions, particularly suited to new defense system needs. Payne has a legacy of designing and building the industry's leading power magnetics components, critical for the highest-performance electronics needs in aerospace systems.
Founded during the post-war aerospace rush of the 1950s by Jon's father, George Payne, Payne Magnetics has grown into one of the industry's most trusted suppliers of premium magnetics. The elder Payne's expertise in RF technology, the heart of complex magnetics design, coupled with the father-son duo's insistence on unifying design and manufacturing, has given them the ability to deliver the smallest and lightest components in the industry. This has given Payne Magnetics longstanding business on the largest commercial platforms in the world, including the 737MAX, and the most mission-critical programs for the warfighter, from the F-16 to the F-18.
Today, this hyper-specialized engineering and manufacturing capability, resembling an art more than a science, risks being lost. Amca's acquisition ensures that this critical ability for the aerospace and defense industrial base will continue to thrive. The company's engineering team will work closely with Jon Payne and the team to inherit Payne's expertise and develop new product variants to support critical platforms, including for rapidly changing defense needs in UAVs and energetics, and for legacy systems where existing alternatives have long lead times or poor quality.
"Not only was Amca the only acquirer focused on keeping decades of our aerospace magnetics expertise alive, but they also had the ambition to supercharge our capabilities for the industry's changing needs. I'm looking forward to helping them realize their vision as the third-generation owners of this company," said Jon Payne.
