By Chris Meyers
Staff writer
   In the next two years, Ultra Electronics plans to add 45 jobs as it adds a new production line to its UnderSea Sensors Systems Inc. division.
   The new line will make high-pressure generators that will be used on military aircraft and replace a current system used to release bombs, according to Roland Fritz, president of USSI.
   The pure air generators are currently made in London, but plans call to move the production line to the Columbia City facility.
   Fritz said the Army could use the generators to replace the need for oxygen bottles in the field, or for use by anyone who has to pull an oxygen tank on a cart.
   “We are looking at other commercial applications as well,” he said.
   Amid the announcement to invest $4.4 million to the local plant, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered up to $565,000 in performance-based tax credits and $150,000 in training grants.
   Fritz said the new production line could add 45 employees, all of whom will have to be trained to handle the high-pressure devices.
   The Whitley County Council also approved Tuesday a 10-year tax abatement on real and personal property improvements associated with the project.
   Plans call for the new line to be running by the end of the year, although full expansion may not be completed until 2012.
   USSI employs more than 300 people at its local plant, and in the 10 years it has been in business locally, it has grown from an $18 million business to an operation that did $100 million in sales last year, according to Fritz.

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