--- aliases: - Brunswick Corporation - Brunswick Corp. - Brunswick - Brunswick Defense Division - Brunswick Technical Group - Brunswick Defense category: Private Organization created: 2024-04-25 location: Lake Forest, Illinois relations: - fn: 1 reverse: true role: president of the Technical Group, known as the Defense Division before 1991 start: 1988 type: employed_by with: '[[Robert C. Sigrist]]' - fn: 1 role: sold Technical Group products, including tactical weapons, to the Department of Defense type: contractor_to with: '[[Department of Defense]]' summary: Lake Forest, Illinois manufacturer whose Defense Division, renamed the Technical Group in 1991, kept a Costa Mesa plant that was the last Brunswick defense asset unsold after the 1995 sale. tags: - Organization - Public - Defense - Munitions - RAW - CasolaroPapers - LakeForest - CostaMesa title: Brunswick Corporation updated: 2026-10-08 --- [Brunswick Corporation](/organizations/brunswick-corporation/) is a company headquartered in Lake Forest whose Defense Division, renamed the Technical Group in 1991, gave its address as Costa Mesa on an October 1976 cover sheet for the Rifleman's Assault Weapon preserved in the [Danny Casolaro](/people/danny-casolaro/) papers. The company's annual reports for 1993 to 1995 describe the Technical Group, its divestiture, and a Costa Mesa facility that remained unsold.[^1][^2][^3][^4] ### The Defense Division in the Casolaro papers The "Promotional Material" folder of Casolaro's research files, published as photographs on the Internet Archive, contains a Brunswick item marked by hand "BD|AI|PM-03." Its first photograph is a cover sheet reading "RAW / Rifleman's Assault Weapon / for / Urban Warfare / October 1976," with the imprint "BRUNSWICK CORPORATION, DEFENSE DIVISION, 3333 HARBOR BLVD. • COSTA MESA • CA 92626 USA" and the legend "PROPRIETARY DATA." The second photograph is a line drawing of a tube-launched weapon on a bipod, which shows faintly through the cover sheet. No other pages of the package were photographed, and the cover's top right corner carries the page marking "01-498."[^4] The restrictive legend on the cover reads: "INFORMATION AND DATA SET FORTH HEREIN ARE PROPRIETARY TO AND THE PROPERTY OF BRUNSWICK CORPORATION AND SHALL NOT BE DISCLOSED OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT OR BE DUPLICATED, USED OR DISCLOSED IN WHOLE OR IN PART FOR ANY PURPOSE OTHER THAN TO EVALUATE THE SAME PROVIDED, THAT IF A CONTRACT IS AWARDED TO THE BRUNSWICK CORPORATION AS A RESULT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SUBMISSION OF SUCH DATA, THE GOVERNMENT SHALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO DUPLICATE, USE OR DISCLOSE THESE DATA TO THE EXTENT PROVIDED IN THE CONTRACT." [^4] The folder's 21 photographs run in this order: the [Industrias Cardoen](/organizations/industrias-cardoen/) sales sheet ("BD|AI|PM-04"), the printed fuel-air munitions page numbered 207 ("BD|AI|PM-02"), the Brunswick cover and drawing ("BD|AI|PM-03"), the [Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.](/organizations/counter-terrorism-consultants-inc/) resume packet ("BD|AI|PM-05"), and the Inter-Probe brochure ("BD|AI|PM-01"). The CTC cover page's typed title shows through the back of the Brunswick drawing sheet.[^4] ### Rifleman's Assault Weapon The U.S. Army hired Brunswick in May 1977 to refine the design of the Rifleman's Assault Weapon (RAW), and the work was done by the company's California-based defense division. The Marine Corps examined the weapon and reportedly fielded it in limited numbers, and Brunswick later sold the rights to the project to the defense contractor L-3.[^5] ### Technical Group and the 1993 divestiture The company's annual report for 1993 names Robert C. Sigrist as president of the Technical Group, "known as the Defense Division prior to 1991," and says he had held that post since 1988. The Technical Group, the report states, "manufactures and sells composite structures for aircraft, helicopters, spacecraft, propulsion systems, missiles," and a long list of other products that includes "tactical weapons; flight decoys and target training systems; relocatable and mobile shelter systems; and chemical protective detectors/alarms." The same report says those products "are sold to the [U.S. Department of Defense](/organizations/department-of-defense/); major defense prime contractors."[^1] In February 1993 the board approved plans to divest the Technical Group, which the 1993 report calls "the only remaining business in the Company's Technical segment." The company recorded a 26.0 million dollar estimated loss on the divestiture in 1992, and an additional 12.2 million dollar estimated loss in 1993 reflecting offers the company was reviewing.[^1] ### Sale to Technical Products Group, 1994 and 1995 On December 1, 1994, Brunswick executed a contract for the sale of substantially all the assets of the Technical Group, with a closing expected in the first half of 1995. The report for 1994 excludes "the assets associated with the Company's facility in Costa Mesa, California," and says negotiations for those assets were continuing. Item 1 of the same report says the company and the buyer had settled with the government "all issues related to the Federal Grand Jury investigation of the Company's Marion, Virginia facility," while the notes to the financial statements say the company "is finalizing a settlement acceptable to the buyer and the government" of the same issues.[^2] The sale closed on April 28, 1995, to Technical Products Group, Inc., described in the 1995 report as "a newly formed company controlled by TPG Holdings in Atlanta, Georgia." The buyer took the Marion, Virginia, Lincoln, Nebraska, Camden, Arkansas, and DeLand, Florida operations. The Costa Mesa unit was excluded, and the 1995 report states that its assets were "fully reserved as of Decmeber [sic] 31, 1995" while the company "continues to seek a buyer."[^3] ### Costa Mesa after the sale The 1995 report records a provision of 11.5 million dollars in the second quarter of 1995 for lower than anticipated selling prices on the businesses sold. The Costa Mesa plant remained with Brunswick after the sale, and the 1995 report describes the unit as one the company still seeks to sell.[^3] [^1]: Brunswick Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1993 (filed March 29, 1994), SEC EDGAR, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/14930/0000014930-94-000004.txt. Item 4 biographies, Note 5 (Discontinued Operations) and the Item 1 description of the Technical Group. [^2]: Brunswick Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1994 (filed March 23, 1995), SEC EDGAR, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/14930/0000014930-95-000003.txt. Discontinued operations and the Costa Mesa exclusion. [^3]: Brunswick Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1995 (filed March 28, 1996), SEC EDGAR, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/14930/0000014930-96-000002.txt. Sale to Technical Products Group, Inc. and the Costa Mesa reserve. [^4]: "RAW, Rifleman's Assault Weapon for Urban Warfare, October 1976," Brunswick Corporation Defense Division, proprietary data cover sheet, hand-marked "BD|AI|PM-03," in "Promotional Material," Danny Casolaro papers, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/PromotionalMaterial.pdf. [^5]: "The US Army's Doomed Plan for a Rocket-Propelled Bowling Ball," Vice, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yp3g3b/the-us-armys-doomed-plan-for-a-rocket-propelled-bowling-ball. Sole source for the May 1977 hiring, the Marine Corps use and the sale to L-3. --- *The Info Web has an MCP server for agents at https://theinfoweb.org/mcp (streamable HTTP, no auth): search by meaning, exact text, source or date, and follow typed, footnoted connections. Setup and the same tools over GET: https://theinfoweb.org/llms.txt*