Will Indiana Move Up on the 2009 Billion-Dollar Defense Food Chain?
1/22/2009
The mission of The Hoosier Coefficient, which appears on MidwestBusiness.com every Thursday, is to profile the often-overlooked rich technology development and commercialization in Indiana. The Hoosier state is home to four of the top technology research and engineering universities in the nation and tech pros ignore Indiana at their own peril
INDIANAPOLIS – The commercial defense industry has long offered large and small businesses alike a recession-proof haven.
With $5.14 billion in federal procurement for the last fiscal year, Indiana continues to quietly move up the U.S. Department of Defense food chain and plans are in place to grow that even further, according to Indiana Office of Defense Development director Jason Lovell.
Flying under the commercial radar screen, Indiana is home to robust commercial defense operations across the state. This is particularly true in northeast Indiana where more than $2 billion in federal defense-related contracts fueled commercial growth for such defense heavyweights as Raytheon, General Dynamics, ITT (space and telecom) and a host of others.
As John Sampson at the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership will attest, these larger defense companies create all kinds of vertical cluster opportunities for smaller companies. They are aided and abetted by centers of excellence for wireless and systems engineering at the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne (IPFW).
At the other end of the state, the $2 billion Naval Surface Warfare Center at Crane (NSWC Crane) federal laboratory and military technical center punch more than $1.4 million into Indiana economic growth each business day. Both the Fort Wayne and Crane regions employ about 10,000 engineers, scientists, IT analysts and technical professionals with more jobs on deck.
Commercial economic development from defense development extends well beyond the borders of geographic military centers in Indiana with the Growth Alliance for Evansville recently cutting a deal with NSWC Crane for technology transfer and patent commercialization.
Back at Crane, Ron Arnold of the Daviess County Economic Development Corporation is presently working on details to establish a WestGate Institute at the growing WestGate @ Crane Technology Park. The new institute will join a list of Fortune 100 defense companies already in the WestGate and is expected to be the home to innovative research and development entities including a new home for the Bloomington, Ind.-based RF Alliance.
University engagement in the Indiana commercial defense industry also remains robust, according to Lovell. Crane military operations maintain cooperative research agreements with Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana University in Bloomington, the University of Notre Dame, the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute and a host of others. Even tiny Taylor University maintains a highly regarded physics program and is capturing high-profile contracts from NASA.
Within the military community, southern Indiana is also the focus of attention at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center. U.S. Army and U.S. National Guard units from all over America come to the former state developmental center to learn the latest techniques in urban combat training and anti-terrorist techniques.
Camp Atterbury in south central Indiana has seen what Lovell calls “dramatic growth” as a specialty mobilization and training center for U.S. Armed Forces. Together with the Muscatatuck facility, the two centers offer direct deployment and testing opportunities for state-of-the-art technology and communication.
Back to the commercial side, Lovell says plans are being readied for an even greater outreach to attract additional commercial defense dollars to Indiana in 2009.
This will draw on existing and future resources both at universities and in new facilities being dedicated for commercial defense procurement. As linkages and new connectivity grow throughout the region, Lovell expects Indiana to grow even further in defense-related commercial development over the next 12 months. This makes Indiana an attractive place to grow a technology company.
Michael Snyder is principal of The MEK Group, a marketing and business development consulting firm that provides communications-driven strategies to increase market share, enhance productivity and build distinctive brand awareness. Snyder can be reached at msnyder@themekgroup.com.
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