Predator Systems laying off workers in Boca Raton

Cuts to the Pentagon's budget are forcing the layoff of 25 employees at a defense contractor in Boca Raton.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, which owns Predator Systems just off of Spanish River Boulevard, says the layoffs are part of a restructuring the company has undertaken over the last eighteen months.

Curtiss-Wright bought the plant in 2011, at which point there were 45 people employed at Predator Systems.

Since then, at least twenty others have lost their job.

The plant will be closed later this year and the final 25 people will be let go.

A Curtiss-Wright spokesperson could not say whether any of the employees in Boca would be offered jobs at other plants around the country.

Predator makes electronics, computers and hydraulics for the Dept. of Defense.

However, Curtiss-Wright spokesman Jim Ryan says that, "Orders have dried up. I don't think it's a secret that the Pentagon is shrinking things."

Ryan says employees were told either Wednesday night or Thursday morning that the plant would be closing.

Curtiss-Wright did $2.5 billion in sales last year and has 9,700 employees based at different plants around the country. It is headquartered in Parsippany, NJ.

Predator systems did nearly $5.5 million worth of contract work for the Pentagon.