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Founded by Charles McLaughlin in 1941, McLaughlin Research Corporation (MRC) was incorporated after World War II. Today, more than 60 years later, the company, which operates as a small business under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 541330, formerly Standard Industrial Classification  (SIC) Code  8711,  (Engineering Services for Military and Aerospace Equipment and Military Weapons), is still principally owned by members of the McLaughlin family and is classified as a woman-owned business.

Over the past six decades, MRC has provided life cycle engineering and technical services for a wide range of Department of Defense weapon, sensor, and combat system programs. Presently, McLaughlin furnishes a full spectrum of engineering solutions to customers in the company's core technology areas of systems engineering, design and drafting, configuration management, integrated logistics support, information technology, program management, environmental management, technical documentation, training, and graphics support.

MRC currently has more than 200 employees, primarily located in Middletown, Rhode Island, who provide life cycle support services for U.S. Navy undersea research and development programs, including engineering and technical services for all current and future torpedo and associated launching system programs, configuration management of the Navy's worldwide inventory of subsurface-launched torpedoes, integrated logistic support for Tomahawk cruise missiles, and management support services for the Virginia and Seawolf class submarine programs under more than two dozen NAVSEA SeaPort Enhanced task orders and numerous other contracts.  MRC also has employees in New London, CT; Keyport, WA; San Diego, CA; Lexington, MA; and Syracuse, NY.

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McLaughlin Research Corporation has been actively engaged in the fields of technical documentation and program management for both government and industry for over  60 years. We have continually held Navy contracts in these areas since our inception.

Early in 1941, McLaughlin Research was founded under the name of McLaughlin-Carr Associates and operated under that name until incorporating under our present name in 1947. The firm's original activity was in engineering and design of airports. Working on airports in the Philadelphia area, McLaughlin-Carr became familiar with some of the production problems at the Naval Aircraft Factory and subsequently devised a plan to speed up production through the use of visual assembly charts (production illustrations). This plan worked so well that we conducted similar projects for the Naval Gun Factory and the Bureau of Ordnance throughout the war.

In 1944 when the Navy was confronted with the decision to abandon a valuable fire control system project that was nearly 75 percent completed or to seek outside help, it turned to McLaughlin-Carr, who by that time had vast experience in other fire control systems, for the job. The firm successfully operated the program until the system went into production by General Electric. Our efforts in this project led to our receiving the Naval Ordnance Award from the U.S. Navy.

In the years following the war, the firm, by then renamed McLaughlin Research, prepared many thousands of engineering reports, technical manuals, provisioning documents and conducted special studies covering a wide spectrum of naval equipment. Other customers during that period included the U.S. Army and Air Force, Sperry Gyroscope, Bell Laboratories, and Stromberg Carlson.

McLaughlin Research began furnishing automatic data processing (ADP) services in 1956, when it assisted the IBM Military Products Division in the preparation of the 14-volume SAGE System parts catalog. This parts catalog was one of the first large projects to be prepared by ADP methods. For the next eight years, as IBM introduced design improvements in equipment, McLaughlin Research developed innovative configuration management techniques to maintain this catalog up to date through 27 configurations of the system. After this beginning, McLaughlin Research introduced ADP parts provisioning documentation to many companies, including IBM Commercial Products, General Electric, Sperry Gyroscope, Collins Radio, Sylvania, RCA, and Grumman.

During the 1950s and '60s, dozens of skilled writers, illustrators, and production personnel in McLaughlin's film division, working out of studios in New York and Washington, D.C., produced award-winning informational and training films for government and industry on subjects ranging from the Tennessee Valley Authority (This Is the TVA and TVA and the Nation) to the U.S. Air Force's Minuteman missile system (Minuteman and You and Ground Electronics System for Minuteman).

In the 1960s, McLaughlin Research continued to provide state-of-the-art technical support for military-industrial programs, such as the acquisition and fielding of the sea-based leg of the nation's strategic deterrence triad, the Polaris fleet ballistic missile system. Using early IBM mainframe computers, McLaughlin Research logisticians and configuration managers monitored complex manufacturing and shipping schedules to ensure on-time delivery of system components, earning the Navy's Polaris Team flag for the company.

Since the early 1970s, McLaughlin Research has provided a wide variety of life cycle support services for U.S. Navy undersea weapon and combat system programs from our offices in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Washington under more than 100 major cost-plus fixed fee (CPFF), indefinite duration/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts and over two dozen NAVSEA SeaPort Enhanced task orders. Tasking during the past three decades has ranged from designing world class research and development laboratory facilities to installing and operating sensitive electronic test equipment aboard submarines from the Mediterranean to the Pacific; from tracking the configuration status of every submarine-launched torpedo in the U.S. Navy inventory to analyzing the technical and financial status of major system acquisition programs, such as the Seawolf and Virginia class submarines; and from developing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementation and compliance-related reports and manuals to creating interactive computer-based training and integrated, multimedia courses for U.S. and allied navy customers.

Today, at the dawn of the 21st Century, McLaughlin Research looks back with pride on our accomplishments in the past -- and forward with confidence in our ability to help our customers meet the challenges that lie ahead in the future.

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Before founding the company that became a leader in the field of technical documentation for the military during World War II, and which still bears his name as it continues to be a leading provider of technical and management solutions for government and industry into the 21st century, Charles H. McLaughlin was a pioneer in another field during the early part of the 20th century: aerial photography. For a trip back in time to the skies above New York City and other well-known destinations in the 1930s, as seen through Charley McLaughlin's lens, put on your leather cap and goggles, fasten your seatbelt, and click on the thumbnail below. Contact!

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