Gulf Coast Aerospace Newsletter

  • Home
  • Gulf Coast Aerospace Newsletter

Gulf Coast Aerospace Newsletter A bimonthly newsletter covering aerospace and aviation activities in the Gulf Coast I-10 region between Northwest Florida and Southeast Louisiana.

17/08/2021

FULL NEWSLETTER IN PREVIOUS POST

First new helo trainer and a new park
By David Tortorano
A new Leonardo TH-73A "Thrasher" helicopter earlier this month landed at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Fla.
The arrival was celebrated in a ceremony attended by some of the base's and the county's top leaders.
The helicopter is assigned to Training Air Wing (TW) 5 and will replace the TH-57B/C Sea Ranger as the undergraduate training helicopter for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.
The helicopter made the two-day transit to the base from the Leonardo Helicopters manufacturing facility in Philadelphia.
The TH-73A is the first of 32 that will be delivered to Whiting by the end of this year.
In total, 130 TH-73A training helicopters will be delivered to Whiting by the end of 2024.
Leonardo delivered the first TH-73A to the Navy in a ceremony in Philadelphia in June. It had to go through final DoD inspections before it could be sent to Whiting.
Leonardo also is building an 80,000 square-foot maintenance center at the Whiting Aviation Park, adjacent to NAS Whiting, to service the TH-73As. Until that facility is built, Leonardo is temporarily occupying a hangar at Peter Prince Airport.

It looks like the business park at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans is moving forward.
Industrial Realty Group, LLC (IRG) said in July that it signed a long-term ground lease with NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) for a 50-acre development parcel within MAF, one of the largest production facilities in the nation.
IRG’s future development is expected to be up to 1,000,000 square feet of buildings at the property, developed in phases.
Stuart Lichter, president of IRG, said the company is always searching for creative solutions that benefit all parties.
“In this instance, IRG can provide NASA an excellent long-term plan for its underutilized land in Orleans Parish, while developing a dynamic project resulting in job creation and economic growth.”
Robert Champion, director of MAF, said the agreement allows MAF to offset some production costs and gives new purpose to this part of MAF.
The first phase of development is expected to produce a 400,000 square foot warehouse building. A project timeline will be based on market demand.
Meanwhile, should plans reach fruition at Stennis Space Center (SSC), Miss., to develop its Enterprise Park, it would give the region two technology parks within 40 miles, with space activities part of the focus.

Speaking of NASA, the federal space agency conducted its sixth RS-25 single-engine hot fire test earlier this month on the A-1 Test Stand at SSC.
It’s part of a seven-part test series to support development and production of engines for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on future missions to the Moon.
Operators fired the engine for more than eight minutes, the same amount of time RS-25 engines need to fire for launch of the SLS rocket.

Three Panhandle airports have grown tremendously this summer. Airports in Panama City Beach, Destin Fort Walton Beach, and Pensacola have collectively added 2.1 million seats versus summer 2019, an increase of 52 percent.
With growth between 39 percent and 70 percent, they’re among Florida's best-performing airports by this simple measure.
But Florida as a whole has risen by just 4 percent. Florida has been pulled down by reductions at Ft Lauderdale (-4.0 percent), Jacksonville (-22.0 percent), Orlando International (-3.0 percent), Orlando Sanford (-8.0 percent), Tampa (-2.5 percent), and various smaller airports.

On the subject of airports, the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City Beach reached a milestone on July 28 when at an Airport Authority Board meeting officials announced the facility’s master plan update is complete.
The 20-year roadmap, which is revamped every five to seven years, includes various renovations and expansions, plans that come as the airport has seen rapid tourism growth this year.
The plan awaits final approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and Florida Department of Transportation. The airport aims to tackle first renovations to its baggage-claim system and expansions of both customer and aircraft parking lots. Designs for all were approved during the meeting.

17/08/2021

FULL NEWSLETTER IN PREVIOUS POST

CMI is home-grown, high-end
It says a lot about a company if, given the choice of fudging on a form or losing some business, it opts to lose the business. But that’s the mindset of Certified Manufacturing Inc., a 23-year-old woman-owned electronic manufacturing company in Okaloosa County.
Certified Manufacturing Inc. (CMI) was established in 1998 by Pamela Bechtold and Robert Bechtold. Today it has 33,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space in Holt Industrial Park, a dozen miles west of Crestview, and has 32 employees.
Rather than high-volume commercial products, AS9100-certified CMI specializes in the much-narrower niche market of high-end electronics for the Department of Defense, NASA and aerospace customers, including the Air Force, Navy, Army, Boeing, DRS, Lockheed Martin and more recently, it was approved as a supplier for Northrop Grumman.
Electro-mechanical assembly; complex harness fabrication; specialized potting processes; cable assembly; inspection; and automated testing are among its capabilities. It can also provide laser wire marking on a variety of wire/cable sizes and types, and cable/harness over braiding.
CMI’s willingness to lose the work rather than fudge on a form was detailed in a March 2021 issue of Wiring Harness News. The trade publication was writing about Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), a new requirement for any company doing work directly or indirectly for the Department of Defense, and used CMI as an example of a company that took steps to become compliant.
According to the article, CMI a couple of years ago was providing an electromechanical assembly for a low-volume defense program. In the second round Request for Quote (RFQ) for the assembly, there was a new box to be checked for a cybersecurity requirement CMI hadn’t seen before.
“They called and said they were ready to place the order, but we hadn’t checked the box. I told them I can’t do that without lying,” Robert was quoted as saying in the article.
The procurement office indicated there was no current system in place to verify compliance, they just seemed to want the box checked. But that wasn’t an option for CMI. Integrity had always been at the forefront of the company’s dealings, and that wasn’t going to change to get an order. They “no quoted” the business, he said.
CMMC is a big deal. For the past year and a half, DoD has been setting up a process to ensure all defense industrial base contractors meet cybersecurity requirements for handling controlled unclassified information, according to an August FedTech article.
CMMC is still evolving, but at its core it is designed to ensure that defense contractors are all meeting at least a basic level of cybersecurity hygiene for protecting sensitive defense information. It subjects all DoD contractors to third-party cybersecurity assessments.
The CMMC Accreditation Body, a nonprofit separate from the DoD, is the body the Pentagon has set up to train Certified Third-Party Assessor Organizations (C3PAOs) to assess contractors’ cybersecurity.
But the government has yet to complete the training for the new CMMC auditors, so CMI is careful about how it describe achievements in documentation.
“We say in all of our communications that we are CMMC Level III ready, implying that we are ready for certification,” Robert told the reporter from Wiring Harness News.

Larry Sassano, former head of economic development in Okaloosa County, sees great value in a home-grown company like CMI.
“In economic development, we try to recruit targeted industries, but we love to have a company start up in our own back yard,” said Sassano. “We found historically that a company that gets started and supported in the local community tends to stay here.”
Robert is a native of Long Island, N.Y., and Pamela comes from Detroit, Mich. Both worked for many years for a major military/aerospace prime contractor, and that’s where they met. She had experience in manufacturing project management and marketing, and he was in senior level management.
Around the mid 90s, the couple began thinking about becoming entrepreneurs. They knew that big business often took less-profitable work and outsourced to small businesses, and saw that as a great opportunity to become one of the companies big businesses turn to for certain manufacturing needs.
The company started in the wake of a “conversation over a bottle of wine or two and craziness,” said Robert. Crazy like a fox, perhaps.
The couple figured they could make a go of it because they both came from corporate America and had complimentary skill sets. They were also fortunate enough to have a mentor who was able to provide expertise in financial matters.
They began with a 2,000 square-foot facility in Crestview, started talking to local companies and bringing in steady work. Within a year they were maxed out on space. At the time, their largest prime suggested that if they had a larger facility to handle more work, they would send CMI more business.
They contacted their local economic development officials to help them find a bigger space, and Sassano steered them to a new industrial park being developed in Holt.
It was a 10,000 square foot facility, more than they needed, but it was right off of Interstate 10. By 2007 space was again an issue. CMI purchased a seven-acre parcel at the park and received incentives to build a new facility, the current 33,000 operation.
CMI personnel are all trained to J-STD-001, IPC-610, and IPC/WHMA-A-620, with in-house trainers for all.
They are multiple year winners of the Boeing Mentor Protégé program honoring 100 percent on-time delivery and zero defects. They are now fully certified, Level III, to the DoD’s new CMMC cyber security requirement.
Over the years CMI has played a role in some key military programs, including converting C-130 cargo aircraft to gunships and converting F-16 aircraft into QF-16 aerial target drones.
It was also the prime contractor for an electronic propeller control system upgrade for up to 40 C-130s for the Army and Navy. That involved changing out the wiring and controls for all four engines for each aircraft. They contracted with a company in Mississippi who had the accredited manpower and could tear down and rebuild the engines along with the proper weight and balance calculations.
Nathan Sparks, current head of economic development in Okaloosa County agrees with his predecessor about CMI.
He said CMI has a proud history and has shown as long as anyone can remember the importance of integrating in the community. He said CMI has been a regular part of “Educate the Educators,” a six-year-old program where businesses open their doors to teachers, counselors and principals to show them what they do. That, says Sparks, is key to showing students opportunities in their own back yard.
“I can’t say enough good things about the Bechtolds. They continue to give back to the community.”
- Gulf Coast Reporters League

17/08/2021

FULL NEWSLETTER IN PREVIOUS POST

Aerial tanker deja vu
A decade after Mobile saw its hopes for an aerial tanker project vanish, there is renewed hope that the city that now builds two type of Airbus passenger jets may again get a chance to help produce a mainstay of the American military.
The Air Force in June released a sources sought notice for the non-developmental tanker, KC-Y, that would bridge the gap between the Boeing KC-46 and the next-generation KC-Z tanker. The Air Force wants as many as 15 tankers a year, with the new “bridge tanker” operational in 2029.
The notice means Boeing and Airbus may end up in another tanker war as early as next year, when the Air Force is expected to finalize requirements for the project to buy up to 160 KC-Ys.
Mobilians are aware of the background. Airbus, then known as EADS, and Boeing competed for the right to build the current KC-135 replacement. Airbus initially won in 2008 and planned to build them in Mobile, which at that time had no aircraft assembly lines. But following a Boeing protest the $35 billion contract went to Boeing in 2011.
After the loss, Airbus decided to build its most popular jetliner, the A320, in Mobile, making the city the fourth worldwide to build the jet. Later, Airbus decided to build the A220, the former Bombardier C-Series, at a second assembly in Mobile, making it the world’s fourth largest passenger jet manufacturing center.
With two such major wins, it’s not surprising that many in Mobile are looking forward to another opportunity for a battle between Boeing, with a modified KC-46, and the Airbus A330 multi-role transport.

Opening salvos
At a House Armed Services Committee hearing in June, Reps. Rob Wittman, R-Va., and Mike Rogers, R-Ala., expressed frustration with the KC-46 and asked Air Force leaders to consider re-competing the contract due to Boeing’s poor performance., according to Defense News of June 16. The Air Force intends to buy 179 KC-46s over the program of record, wrapping up in fiscal year 2027.
In the same article, Republican Rep. Jerry Carl, who represents Mobile, made the case that U.S. Air Force fighters operating in Europe regularly receive fuel from the Airbus A330 tanker.
“Knowing that we’ve got an aircraft that can be built in America ... why are we not bringing this back up for a bid?” he asked.
Acting Air Force Secretary John Roth said the service currently doesn’t see a cost-benefit to re-opening the KC-X competition.
“I take your point in terms of the history of the contact,” he said. “But…we’re concerned that if we tried to go into a new contract vehicle, that would put additional delays into the program that we simply don’t think would be efficacious for us,” according to Defense News.
At least one expert doesn't think the Air Force will abandon Boeing.
Loren Thompson wrote in Forbes that unless the Air Force wants a repeat of the protracted process of the initial competition, “KC-46 would seem to be the obvious candidate for the next increment of tanker purchases,” he wrote July 15.
“If the Air Force gets to a point where it holds a competition for the next lot of tankers, the outcome isn’t likely to be different from the matchup a decade ago, in which the deputy secretary of defense described Boeing’s entry as “the clear winner.”
Thompson lists a series of issues he sees, ranging from the larger size of the Airbus offering to the length of time if would take for certification of the Airbus tanker. Thompson also points out that fleet diversity drives up costs, and that the Air Force has repeatedly stated that it needs to reduce the number of aircraft types in its fleet to save money. Adding another aircraft type to the fleet means new training programs for pilots and maintainers, unique stores of spare parts, construction of hangers that can house bigger aircraft, and other costs.
Another aerospace expert, Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group, a Virginia-based market analysis firm, sees another factor in the new competition.
“This looks like a USAF attempt to put competitive pressure on Boeing, and also to deflect criticism of the KC-46 acquisition. In other words, Boeing still has a chance here. All they need to do is get their program back on track, and submit a competitive bid.
“However, with billions in losses and similar ex*****on problems on other programs, Boeing may continue to struggle with the KC-46. Thus, Airbus may have a chance, particularly if it teams with Lockheed Martin. Yet previous Airbus teaming arrangements with Lockheed Martin have failed, and its tanker alliance with Northrop Grumman collapsed too. Airbus may need a backup plan if it has to go it alone.”
Although talk of the looming competition heated up only recently, as far back as late 2018 there was talk about a future aerial tanker battle when Airbus teamed up with Lockheed Martin to develop tankers to meet the military's growing demand. (see December 2018 Gulf Coast Aerospace Newsletter, pp 5-6)
The 2018 announcement of the memorandum of agreement between the two aerospace giants came eight years after Airbus lost the tanker battle. In that battle, Airbus teamed with Northrop Grumman and in 2008 won the $35 billion contract to build tankers in Mobile, but it lost in a new bidding process.
Now Airbus will work with Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor, to go after the next possible aircraft and refueling service orders from the U.S. military. The U.S. Air Force is examining ways to meet growing demand for aerial refueling with possible fee-for-service arrangements, purchases of hundreds of additional aircraft, and the future development of a stealthy tanker.
The Airbus A330-based Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) has been selected by 12 countries. It’s already refueling or capable of refueling most major U.S. combat airplanes, including the Lockheed-built F-35.
The Airbus-Lockheed agreement opens the intriguing possibility that Mobile could be the site to build A330 MRTT aircraft. Airbus has not ruled out producing tankers in Mobile if it can secure Pentagon business, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Although it’s already building A320 and A220 jetliners, there appears to be no issue of space. During the Southeast Aerospace and Defense Conference in Mobile in June 2018, Chris Curry, executive director of the
Mobile Airport Authority, said the plan to move commercial airline traffic to the 1,200-acre downtown airport will not hinder industrial tenants like Airbus, who were consulted during the study to ensure any move would not jeopardize their operations.
Asked what kind of space Brookley has for future companies, Curry said it has as much space as needed and hinted it could acquire more if needed.
The heavy activity is also apparently not an issue to Airbus. During November’s Aerospace Alliance Summit, an
Airbus official pointed out that the airport in France’s Toulouse is far busier and it poses no problems for building aircraft.

Autonomous future
One of the factors on the horizon is the move towards a more autonomous future. Drones have made inroads in the military, from surveillance aircraft to attack platforms, and the current push is aerial refueling drones.
While the talk right now is the looming KC-Y battle, the Air Force is looking at the next-generation capability based on “advanced technologies.”
Lt. Gen. David Nahom, deputy chief of staff for programs, told Senate appropriators in July: “We’re keeping our eyes open to advanced technology. There may be something else beyond the KC-46, beyond a 767-based platform to take us into the future.”
Three years ago Boeing won an $805 million development contract to build Navy MQ-25A “Stingray” drones, with the promise of billions more for 76 of the remotely piloted, carrier-capable aerial refueling aircraft. Since that time Boeing has tested the new tanker. In early June, Boeing's “T1” prototype flew out of Illinois, accompanied by a Navy F/A-18F. Mid-air, the fighter connected to the drone’s fueling hose-and-drogue and received 325 pounds of fuel - the first successful aerial refueling of a Navy fighter from a drone, according to Defense News.
It will take two MQ-25 drones to fill up an F-18, but it proved the concept, and advance the T1 prototype to the next stage of testing: deck handling trials out of Norfolk, Va.
Little doubt the Air Force is keeping a close eye on the Navy's autonomous system. That service could begin to lay out its vision for a future aerial refueling tanker as early as next year.
In February, AMC commander Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost said during a Defense Writers Group meeting with reporters that the study will help the Air Force determine which capabilities a future tanker will need to operate in more heavily contested battlefields against the threats posed by nations such as Russia and China.
Key to that discussion is figuring out how much of the aerial refueling process can be performed without a human pilot or boom operator onboard the plane to fly it or give other aircraft gas.
“Is going to be autonomous? Is it going to be pilot on the loop [or] pilot in the loop capability?” asked Van Ovost. “Is it going to be small? Is it going to be large? What kind of [self protection] is it going to have? What kind of electromagnetic spectrum capabilities is it going to have to both protect itself and enhance the lethality of the Joint Force while it’s out there?”

Truce amid challenges
The contest for the KC-Y kicked off the same week President Biden and the European Union called a truce in a 17-year trade battle over state subsidies allegedly given to the U.S. and European plane makers. In June both sides agreed to suspend for five years World Trade Organization-authorized tariffs temporarily suspended in March.
It eases trade tensions amid growing economic competition from China. As part of the deal, the EU and the U.S. agreed to provide research and development funding through an open and transparent process as well as to not give specific support to their own producers that would harm the other side.
While the United States and Europe waged their trade battle, China poured money into its own commercial aircraft to take on the aviation duopoly. Biden made it clear during his visit to Brussels that Washington and Brussels must “work together to challenge and counter China’s non-market practices in this sector that give China’s companies an unfair advantage.”
For the past four years, state-run manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) has run test flights for its 168-seat, narrow-bodied C919 airplane, a potential rival to the A320 and B737. COMAC expects to obtain airworthiness certification from Chinese regulators this year.
The aircraft received between $49 billion and $72 billion in state subsidies, much more than the aid that Airbus and Boeing were given by their governments, according to Scott Kennedy, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“The very real problem is that China is manipulating the market in playing Airbus and Boeing against each other and demanding technology transfers as a condition for orders,” said the Teal Group’s Aboulafia.
Boeing believes that the Chinese market will need 9,360 aircraft in the next 20 years, one-fifth of the world total. It could be a major windfall for the A320 and the 737 MAX, though China has yet to authorize the return of the Boeing aircraft, which was grounded for 20 months in the US following two fatal crashes.
- Gulf Coast Reporters League

15/06/2021

FULL NEWSLETTER IN PREVIOUS POST

Budget, plans upended, and kudos
By David Tortorano
Pentagon leaders speaking to lawmakers defended President Biden’s flat defense budget request, and the slashing of legacy weapons programs in favor of developing technologies as a hedge against China.
The administration sent to Congress a fiscal 2022 budget request that seeks $715 billion for the Defense Department. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley were pressed by both sides of the aisle over plans to forgo a Navy destroyer, four amphibious warships, MQ-9 Reaper drones and to retire 42 A-10 aircraft.
The Biden administration has to navigate the difficult politics of shedding weapons platforms that provide for both national security as well as the communities where they are made, based and maintained. The biggest pushback is always expected from congressional leaders whose state is impacted. It’s always been that way.
Anything with the MQ-9 is of high interest to this region. Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., is supposed to get an MQ-9 mission, and Hurlburt Field is home of the 65th Special Operations Squadron that operates geographically separated MQ-9s.

¦
Despite the best effort, sometimes things just don’t go as planned. It’s true in all facets of life, including economic development efforts.
There was great fanfare in 2017 when GKN Aerospace set up shop at Venture Crossing in Panama City Beach, Fla. Having an aerospace supply company at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport was big.
GKN was expected to invest $55 million and create 170 jobs. But by December 2019, the operation was shut down when the “work package” planned for the site was deemed by GKN to be unsustainable.
The building, owned by St. Joe, is now being actively marketed to others who are interested in taking over the building.
Another idea that didn’t go quite as planned was the effort to create a business park just off Interstate 10 in Beulah, near the Navy Federal Credit Union campus.
Economic development officials in Escambia County envisioned creating the park on land that served as a Navy outlying field. But to do so, they had to buy replacement land for the Navy in the neighboring county of Santa Rosa.
That was done and the Navy took over what’s now called Site X, and relinquished what was OLF 8.
But during that lengthy process, Beulah continued to grow and folks there wanted to use the land to provide amenities. The plan that was eventually adopted is for mixed use, with only some of the land going for the business park. In addition, the mix could change over time as needs change.
We plan. Then life happens.

¦
Next week, Northwest Florida State College will hold a ribbon cutting for the Aviation Center of Excellence located at the Hsu Innovation Institute North complex.
The public-private partnership brings together a wide scope of entities all in support of the aerospace industry in Northwest Florida. NWFSC’s collaboration with the Hsu Educational Foundation creates a learning environment where students in grades K-12 have the opportunity to utilize the state-of-the-art facilities for STEM education around the College’s Aviation and A&P programming.
The idea is to introduce students to advanced technology in high-growth industry sectors.

¦
Kudos for a team of technologists at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, Miss.
It’s gaining recognition for its expertise designing, testing, and deploying capabilities to help critical systems operate more autonomously, efficiently.
The Stennis Autonomous Systems Lab team is focused on providing capabilities that can be used on ground systems, as well as those needed to enable sustainable exploration of the Moon and beyond.
An international conference of aerospace experts recently acknowledged the significance of the team’s efforts, recognizing Stennis Space Center for cutting-edge research in predictive maintenance and integrated systems health management (ISHM).
A collaborative paper by the Stennis Autonomous Systems Lab on how to implement health management capabilities into an existing high-pressure pump-based system was awarded top honors in March in the Predictive Maintenance/ISHM track by the international Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Aerospace Conference.
The paper focused on how to use system monitoring capabilities on the liquid nitrogen pump system at Stennis Space Center.

15/06/2021

FULL NEWSLETTER IN PREVIOUS POST

Facilitator wants your business - here
By Jane Nicholes
A facilitator, according to Oxford Languages, is a person or thing that makes an action or process easy or easier. As economic development manager for Gulf Power, that’s pretty much what Verdell Hawkins does.
Hawkins is one of the people to see in Northwest Florida if you’re representing a new business that may want to move in, or if you’re already here and want to expand an existing operation.
“My usefulness to them is to make their site location process as seamless as possible,” Hawkins says.
Of course he knows about power and energy, but Hawkins also can tell you about site locations, access, assets and potential sources of incentives both government and private. He may work for a power company, but his duties are aimed at recruiting business and developing communities on the small town, county and regional levels. Workforce training and education programs are also part of Gulf Power’s initiatives.
“Once we recruit those companies, we’re involved in getting them information about the local area – building and site information but particularly about electrical information,” Hawkins says.
 “Many of the companies that we’re seeking are the larger manufacturing entities, because your manufacturing jobs typically come with a higher wage. But they also require an ample amount of power. We talk to them about not only our rates but economic development incentives that we offer.”
Hawkins, 42, has been in Pensacola for six years, moving in from Mississippi Power Co. A native of Natchez, Hawkins graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a major in political science and a minor in business. He also served as student body president.
Hawkins was working in Atlanta for the Georgia Department of Transportation and pursuing a master’s degree in public administration from Georgia State when an engagement to a Mississippi girl called him home, as he put it.
Hawkins spent the next decade with Mississippi Power, working in Gulfport, Biloxi and Meridian in different community affairs, development and leadership roles. At the time, The Southern Company owned both Mississippi Power and Gulf Power. Hawkins was encouraged to pursue leadership opportunities, and when a promotion opportunity came up with Gulf Power, he was urged to apply.
Some three years ago The Southern Company sold Gulf Power to NextEra Energy, which owns Florida Power and Light.
At Gulf Power, Hawkins was first involved in community relations management, but later he shifted over to the field of economic development.
Although Gulf Power, now part of Florida Power and Light, remains focused on eight counties it serves in the Pensacola, Fort Walton-Destin and Panama City areas, it has statewide support from NextEra and is able to offer clean energy and renewable energy options that were not available before, Hawkins says.
Gulf Power’s service area includes large military installations such as Eglin Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Pensacola, so aviation, aerospace, defense and cybersecurity are all key factors in the power company’s economic development strategy. Military retirees who choose to settle in Northwest Florida provide an educated, secure workforce capable of handling high tech jobs available in the private sector, Hawkins says.
“We realize that economic development isn’t possible without building a certain infrastructure within our local communities, he says. “So for years we’ve invested and continue to invest in workforce training [and] academic enrichment related to technical skills and related to manufacturing jobs and employment that begin as early as elementary and middle school. We’re also involved in facilitating community collaboration as it is related to economic development.”
The results make up an impressive list of successful projects in which Gulf Power worked with economic development partners, including:

ST Engineering’s expanded aviation MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facilities at Pensacola International Airport. New hangars are among the pieces of the $210 million project that is expected to create 1,300 new jobs.
Beast Code is a software development company in Fort Walton Beach, building virtual environments for design, training and logistics solutions to support the modern warfighter.
ACMT Advanced Composites and Metalforming Technologies took over a former Honeywell plant in Lynn Haven to manufacture parts for commercial and military aviation.
Navy Federal Credit Union’s glossy massive office complex is one of the most visible examples of new construction in Pensacola in recent years.
MAG Aerospace opened a technology Integration and support center in Fort Walton Beach.

In keeping with his and Gulf Power’s emphasis on community involvement, prospects are likely to run across Hawkins in other connection with other organizations dedicated to economic growth. He is the current board vice chairman and incoming chairman of the Florida’s Great Northwest Economic Development Council. On the statewide level he is the Northwest Florida Director of the Florida Economic Development Council.
Hawkins also serves as president of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Association of Blacks in Energy, and as a board member of Southern Miss Alumni Foundation.
Hawkins, his wife, Christina, and children live in Pace. Outside work, he is pursuing a PhD. in international development from Southern Miss. His children, Allison, 9, and Justin, 13, are also proving to be high achievers. Allison runs an online business (admittedly with some help from her mother) in which she makes and sells products such as lip gloss and hand sanitizer. Justin is active in an international youth group and is a double black belt in taekwondo.
Like most people involved in economic development, Hawkins is reluctant to talk specifics about what might be coming to Northwest Florida until it happens.
“What I can say is even with the pandemic, interest and activity in Northwest Florida has been robust,” with projects on the horizon.
One asset unique to recruiting in Northwest Florida is Triumph Gulf Coast, a nonprofit dedicated to awarding $1.5 billion in funds paid by BP Oil as a result of economic damage created by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010.
The corporation, created by the Florida Legislature, has 14 years to commit the money primarily to public infrastructure as well as workforce education and training programs, Hawkins says. Some $258 million has been committed so far. Among the beneficiaries has been ST Engineering.
And in the highly competitive world of economic development, that’s an edge.

Address


Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Gulf Coast Aerospace Newsletter posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

  • Address
  • Alerts
  • Contact The Business
  • Claim ownership or report listing

  • Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company?

Share