Producer
Deere & Company
US agricultural equipment manufacturer (NYSE: DE); world's largest. Acquired NavCom Technology, Inc. (Torrance, California) in 1999 for its StarFire satellite-based correction technology. StarFire is a Wide-Area Differential GPS system with 60 ground-based reference stations broadcasting proprietary L-band corrections via Inmarsat satellite. Latest: StarFire 7500 with SF-RTK (2.5 cm / 1 inch horizontal precision). StarFire is fully captive — only works on Deere machines with GreenStar displays. Deere also markets NavCom's commercial OEM GNSS line (SF-3050, SF-5050) for external customers through NavCom. NavCom Technology, Inc. remains a wholly-owned John Deere subsidiary based in Torrance, CA.
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Inputs supplied
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Goods downstream
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Facilities
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Stories
What they make
2 inputs Deere & Company supplies
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Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Deere & Company makes — pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
3 facilities
John Deere Harvester Works →
USEast Moline, Illinois · assembly_plant
World's largest combine harvester manufacturing facility — ~90 acres under roof (~4M sq ft). Integrates 18,000+ parts per combine; assembly cycle approximately one week. 115 robotic welding arms; ~2,400 employees. Exports to 35+ countries.
John Deere Waterloo Foundry →
USWaterloo, Iowa · captive_foundry
Gray and ductile iron captive foundry — part of Deere's largest manufacturing complex globally. $150M modernization completed ~2013; $13.8M automation investment in 2025. Produces exclusively for internal Deere use: engine blocks, drivetrain castings. 6,000 employees across Waterloo complex.
NavCom Technology (John Deere) – Torrance, California →
USCalifornia
20780 Madrona Avenue, Torrance, California 90503. NavCom Technology, Inc. — a John Deere Company; acquired 1999. Founded 1992; develops StarFire WADGPS/GSBAS satellite correction system and OEM GNSS products. StarFire SF-RTK correction network: 60 global ground-based reference stations, Inmarsat L-band satellite broadcast, 2.5 cm (1 inch) horizontal precision. Latest: StarFire 7500 receiver with integrated Terrain Compensation Module (TCM). NavCom also sells commercial OEM GNSS boards (SF-3050, SF-5050) to external integrators. Torrance location (LA metro area) adjacent to aerospace/defense GNSS engineering talent pool.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map — where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Agricultural Equipment (World's Largest)
50%Precision Agriculture — StarFire + JD Operations Center
12%Construction & Forestry Equipment
20%John Deere Financial & Customer Value
18%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains — chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2024
John Deere's StarFire satellite correction network — which provides sub-inch (2.5 cm) GPS precision to farmers running John Deere tractors worldwide — is a proprietary global satellite-based augmentation system that operates via 60 ground-based reference stations broadcasting over Inmarsat L-band frequencies. A farmer who buys a John Deere 8R tractor is not just buying a tractor; they are subscribing to a proprietary positioning network that cannot be used by any other brand, cannot be switched without hardware replacement, and whose correction signal is controlled entirely by a tractor company in Moline, Illinois. John Deere runs what is effectively a private GPS network for agriculture — and charges an annual subscription fee to access it.
Wikipedia ↗Capacity2023
John Deere's increasing software lock-in of farm equipment has triggered right-to-repair legislation across the US. Deere's modern tractors and combines require John Deere's proprietary Service Advisor software ($3,800+/year for dealer license) to perform many diagnostic and calibration operations. Farmers who purchase six-figure tractors may be unable to repair equipment in the field without Deere authorization or dealer service calls — during critical planting or harvest windows where every hour of downtime costs thousands in lost crop revenue. Colorado became the first state to pass an agricultural right-to-repair law (2023); New York followed. Deere signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation in 2023 pledging access to repair tools — but consumer advocates argued the MOU was insufficient. The world's largest farm equipment manufacturer built a software-dependent control architecture that makes $500,000 tractors functionally dependent on the manufacturer's software access for basic maintenance.
American Farm Bureau Federation ↗Incident2025
The FTC, joined by six state attorneys general, filed suit against Deere & Company on January 15, 2025, alleging that Deere's proprietary Service ADVISOR diagnostic software is available only to authorized dealers — effectively monopolizing all software-dependent repairs. A federal judge denied Deere's motion to dismiss, clearing the way for trial. This software lock extends Deere's supply-chain leverage beyond hardware into the aftermarket repair market.
Federal Trade Commission ↗Origin2023
Deere & Company was founded in 1837 in Grand Detour, Illinois when blacksmith John Deere invented a self-scouring steel plow that solved the problem of prairie soil sticking to cast-iron plows. The company moved to Moline, Illinois in 1848 and grew as American westward expansion created vast demand for farm equipment. Deere's 1999 acquisition of NavCom Technology (a startup spun out from Hughes Aircraft by GPS engineers) was the inflection point that transformed Deere from a mechanical equipment maker into a precision agriculture platform company. NavCom's Starfire technology — originally developed for commercial surveying — became the backbone of Deere's captive GPS correction service, enabling sub-inch agricultural automation. Today Deere's revenue from 'precision technology and smart industrial' (including StarFire subscriptions and digital platform fees) is a growing high-margin layer on top of the equipment business.
Deere & Company ↗