Woodward to close Santa Clarita plant, move military actuation work to Spartanburg
The board's plan cuts about 400 roles and carries one-time charges of $34 million to $47.5 million.
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UpdateMonday, September 21, 2026 at 5:30 PM ET
Woodward said the Spartanburg facility, once online in summer 2027, will also produce spoiler actuation systems for the Airbus A350.
Woodward's board has approved a plan to wind down production at its Santa Clarita, California site and shift military fixed-wing and rotorcraft flight control actuation work to its Spartanburg, South Carolina campus. The company will also divest some legacy commercial rotorcraft, land systems and business jet product lines, along with the Santa Clarita property itself.
The move is expected to affect about 400 roles. Woodward put cumulative pre-tax charges at $34 million to $47.5 million, most of it, $23 million to $29 million, in employee severance. Contract termination costs are expected to run $10 million to $16.5 million, with another $1 million to $2 million in other exit costs.
Woodward expects to stop operations at Santa Clarita no later than December 2027. The divestiture is expected to close in fiscal year 2027, and the Spartanburg facility is expected to come online in the summer of 2027.
The announcement comes after a run of raised aerospace guidance and margin expansion at Woodward that has already prompted repeated price target increases from analysts. Against that backdrop, and against the company's cash generation and pace of share buybacks, the one-time charges look modest. Folding military actuation work into the existing Spartanburg buildout reads as a reinforcement of Woodward's aerospace capacity plans rather than a sign of new strain, leaving the near-term picture largely unchanged.