Industries · Defense
Machining for defense programs
BELL Machine Works machines prototypes and production hardware for defense programs: drones and unmanned aircraft, submarines and unmanned marine systems, ground vehicles, and the sensor, electronics and test hardware that goes with them. ITAR registered, CAGE 18MB0, with controlled technical data held in a separate, isolated Microsoft GCC High environment on U.S. soil.
Defense buyers screen a supplier on compliance before they look at a single part. Most shops our size fail that screen quietly: the drawing sits in commercial cloud storage, whoever has the login can open it, and nobody can say where the file physically is. We built the shop so that question has a short answer. Controlled work runs in its own environment, on U.S. soil, under U.S.-person administration, from quote through delivery.
What we machine for defense programs
Drones and unmanned aircraft
Airframe brackets and structural hardware, sensor and payload mounts, gimbal and camera components, connector hardware and cable management, in 6061 and 7075 aluminum, Delrin and polycarbonate, where weight and the next revision both matter.
Submarines and unmanned marine systems
Sealed housings and O-ring grooved covers, pressure-facing hardware, insulating and electrically isolating components, in 316 stainless, titanium Grade 5, PTFE and PEEK, for undersea and surface platforms that live in salt water.
Ground vehicles and systems
Brackets, mounts, guide and wear components, fixtures, nests and test tooling in aluminum, stainless and engineering plastics, from one-piece development hardware to low-volume production.
Electronics, sensors and test
Micro-D connector covers in aluminum, electroless nickel plated and laser engraved per MIL-STD-130. Test fixture guides for automated test equipment validating aerospace and defense electronics. Non-marring handling and inspection fixtures.
Infrastructure
Two environments, not one system with permissions
The common ITAR failure is not a drawing ending up in the wrong country. It is a controlled drawing sitting next to commercial job data in a system that was never scoped to hold it, supported by whoever the software vendor employs. Most small shops run exactly that way, with folder permissions standing in for a boundary.
We run two environments. Commercial work lives in ProShop ERP: quoting, scheduling, digital travelers, inspection records and certificates. Defense and ITAR-controlled work lives in a separate, isolated environment on Microsoft GCC High, and controlled technical data never enters the commercial system. The boundary is architectural. It does not depend on anyone remembering which folder a drawing belongs in.
GCC High is Microsoft's U.S. sovereign cloud for defense and export-controlled data. Data sits in U.S. datacenters, and Microsoft's own support and operations staff for the environment are screened U.S. persons. On our side, administration of the tenant is restricted to U.S. persons as well. For a shop this size, running a second isolated environment is unusual. We think it should be the norm.
How controlled data is handled
From the moment an export-controlled drawing arrives to the day the parts ship. Ask any shop for this table.
| Where it sits | A Microsoft GCC High tenant, physically on U.S. soil. Drawings, models and job records for controlled work stay there. |
| Who administers it | U.S. persons only. Microsoft's support staff for GCC High are screened U.S. persons; ours are U.S. persons. |
| Who opens it | U.S. persons, on U.S. soil. |
| Where it is separated | A different environment from commercial work, not a different folder. Controlled data never enters ProShop. |
| Where it is machined | Gilroy, California, by U.S. persons, on our own machines. |
| Where it is finished | Anodize, chem film, passivation and plating through an ITAR-registered finishing house. Certificates return with the parts. |
| What ships with it | Material certifications with lot traceability, Certificate of Conformance, dimensional inspection from our in-house CMM, first article inspection on request. |
| What we never do | Publish images, drawings or descriptions of customer parts. ITAR carries export-control obligations on images, and we treat every design as confidential by default. NDAs signed as standard. |
Registered, verifiable, stated precisely
We are ITAR registered with the U.S. Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Our CAGE code is 18MB0, thirty seconds to verify in SAM. Both are plain facts a contracting officer can check without asking us.
To be precise about what the rest is: GCC High is infrastructure, not a certification. It describes where your files sit and who can open them, which is what actually determines your exposure. Our quality system is compliant with ISO 9001 and AS9100D, and third-party certification audits are scheduled for Q1 2027. We would rather say less and have every line survive a check.
Full posture, and the eight questions to ask any shop before you send a drawing, on the Compliance page.
Marking and finishing to spec
MIL-STD-130 laser engraving of part and lot numbers down to 0.035" character height. Anodize per MIL-A-8625 / MIL-PRF-8625 Type I, II and III, chem film per MIL-DTL-5541, passivation per AMS 2700 and ASTM A967, electroless nickel per AMS 2404, plating, and hydrogen de-embrittlement bake. All of it through the ITAR-registered finishing house, so the compliance chain does not break at the last operation.
Standard tolerance ±0.001", tightest held ±0.0002". Aluminum 6061, 7075 and 2024, stainless 303, 304, 316/316L, 17-4 PH and 15-5 PH, titanium Grade 5, Inconel 625 and 718, PTFE, PEEK, Delrin and UHMW. No minimum order. Two-week standard lead time, 24-hour rush.