WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) — A national defense manufacturer has announced that they are closing their West Springfield facility, resulting in a couple hundred people losing their jobs.

Jared Adams, spokesperson for ITT Exelis in West Springfield, says that they are shutting down manufacturing operations at their Interstate Drive facility on June 28.

As a result of the closure, Adams notes 200 of the 235 employees in West Springfield were told Wednesday that they would be laid off.

Around twenty people will remain in western Massachusetts serving in support, engineering, sales, and operational roles.

The remaining employees, Adams says, were notified that they would have an opportunity to relocate to another facility in Rochester, N.Y.

“We’re anticipating reductions in U.S. defense expenditures. We’ve seen a decline with the draw down from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Adams says, adding that those possible cutbacks make it “necessary for us, unfortunately, to conduct the closure.”

ITT Exelis currently manufactures power supplies for Department of Defense night vision goggles in West Springfield and that work will now be “outsourced to another U.S. provider,” according to Adams.

ITT Exelis previously had a separate round of layoffs early last year.

The 200 employees that will lose their jobs are going to be offered severance packages, along with job placement services for other positions at other companies or, if available, within ITT Exelis.

Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, ITT Exelis employs approximately 21,000 people nationwide.