...When officials from the Gulf Coast went to the Farnborough International
Air Show in London in July, they had just received word that the Air Force
tanker project would likely be rebid and that building the planes in Mobile was
not a certainty.
...Disappointed, yes. But one thing was clear: tanker or no tanker, the entire
controversy had put a spotlight on the Gulf Coast region – individual areas and
the region in general – as a viable location for aerospace activities. Now was
the time to leverage that attention.
...“We are a burgeoning aerospace community. That has not changed,” Bill
Sisson, then-vice president of economic development for the Mobile Area
Chamber of Commerce, told the Mobile Press-Register before the trip.
...“The assets within this aerospace corridor … are still relevant,” George
Freeland, executive director of the Jackson County Economic Development
Foundation, told the Mississippi Press before the trip.
...Cindy Anderson, executive director of Florida’s Team Santa Rosa
Economic Development Council, told the Press-Register that aerospace and
defense has been a target industry for her county for the last decade and that
wouldn’t change.
...What has changed is the level of understanding of the value of a regional
approach. There is little doubt the tanker has played a major role in getting the
region’s economic development officials to talk more about their mutual
interests and to work together.
...What they all seem to know is this: Yes, there is already a viable aerospace
corridor between New Orleans and Northwest Florida. But the tanker would
be what one official called a “game-changer,” an addition to the corridor with
still untold rewards.
...It could represent the foothold EADS and other foreign aerospace
companies use to enter the largest aerospace and defense market in the world
at a time when aerospace companies emphasize of value of international
projects like the F-35. It could be an opportunity for the United States, for a
change, to benefit from offshoring.
...Although the game-changing project was given another setback in
September when the Pentagon opted to punt the entire issue to the next
administration, the Gulf Coast and its aerospace corridor will remain in the
spotlight.
The corridor
...The Gulf Coast has had an aerospace corridor for a long time. The
Interstate 10 region between South Louisiana and Northwest Florida is home
to aerospace activities that include Louisiana’s Michoud Assembly Facility,
Mississippi’s Stennis Space Center and Keesler Air Force Base, Mobile’s
Brookley Industrial Complex and Florida’s pilot training and aerial weapons
development programs in Pensacola, Milton, Fort Walton Beach and Panama
City.
...But talking about the aerospace corridor and use of the phrase is of more
recent vintage. During the opening of an unmanned aerial vehicle fabrication
plant in Mississippi’s Moss Point in 2006, Northrop Grumman CEO Ron
Sugar referred to what he called an emerging corridor. Later, former
Mississippi State University President Robert Foglesong told Alliance Insight
that under the right circumstances the Gulf Coast could become an aerospace
“gorilla.” Leroy Barnidge, a vice president at Northrop Grumman, highlighted
the aerospace corridor in his presentation at the University of South
Mississippi economic forum in Biloxi in July.
...Yet despite all the growing aerospace programs in the region, none has done
for the corridor what the tanker program has done: place a persistent spotlight
on the region’s aerospace activities.
...That spotlight first focused on the region in the summer of 2005 when two
Gulf Coast sites – Alabama’s Mobile and Mississippi’s Kiln – were on the list
of four finalists for the EADS plant. The spotlight became more intense when
in late February the Air Force selected Northrop Grumman and EADS to build
the tankers – modified A-330s – at the new plant in Mobile.
...Although the General Accountability Office in June upheld a protest by
Boeing, citing flaws in the Air Force’s selection process, hardly a day passes
that there’s not some type of news, national and international, concerning the
tanker. It ranges from substantive stories about the process to stories of
politicians taking pot shots at workers from another.
...In this country the controversy over the tanker pits politicians from the Gulf
Coast against politicians from Washington State and Kansas. In Europe, which
buys many U.S. defense products, it’s seen as an indicator of whether the U.
S. defense market will be open or shut. Both Boeing and Northrop have spent
huge amounts of dollars in public relations campaigns that range from radio
spots to internet, magazine and newspaper ads.
...But what’s at stake is huge, for Boeing’s aerospace workers in the
Northwest and for the Gulf Coast’s growing effort to become internationally
known for its aerospace activities.
The game-changer
...For the Gulf Coast, the tanker project would add the European Aeronautic
Defence and Space Co. to the nascent aircraft production portion of the
aerospace corridor. Observers understand the tanker is no less significant for
the Gulf Coast region than Mercedes-Benz was for the creation of Alabama’s
auto industry.
...Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., speaking to elected officials and investors at the
Coastal Gateway Economic Development Authority (a partnership of
Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia and Monroe counties in South
Alabama), said that if the Defense Department again picks Northrop/EADS,
“it will be a game-changer unlike any we have seen in our lifetime.”
...Steve Nodine, chairman of the Mobile County Board of County
Commissioners, felt it enough of a game-changer that he made it his mission
to drum up regional support for the project by going to other political bodies in
the region and getting them behind Mobile’s bid to bring political clout to the
tanker fight.
...Nodine visited the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary
of Gulf Breeze and downtown Pensacola, TEAM Santa Rosa, Escambia and
Santa Rosa county commissions, Biloxi Businessmen’s Association and the
New Orleans City Council president.
...Recent EADS moves seem to indicate the tanker is just the start.
...EADS CEO Louis Gallois, during a talk in New York in late August, said
that United States officials are now encouraging foreign competition in the
aerospace and defense industries and that EADS needs to increase its
presence in the United States to compete in the world’s biggest defense
market.
...“There is a window of opportunity which allows us to get access to a much
bigger number of sectors than in the past,” he said, according to the
Associated Press.
...Flight International reported in late August that a new job advertisement
seems to confirm EADS North America’s intention to use Airbus platforms to
compete for a variety of Boeing platforms flown by the U.S. Air Force.
...The ad at the EADS-NA web site was seeking candidates for a business
development director who would, among other things, “anticipate and provide
analysis and marketing strategy for Airbus platforms which could compete for
Air Force programs, such as E-4B, JSTARS, AWACS and other C2ISR
Platforms.”
...That EADS has its sights set on competing for other Air Force platforms is
not that surprising. It’s possible to see other foreign aerospace companies
thinking the same thing. And it seems clear economic development officials
from the region want to promote the Gulf Coast as an area that would
welcome the foreign aerospace companies.
New regionalism
...The common interest in the tanker may be the one thing that leads to more
regional cooperation. It has been a standard part of speeches from politicians
and economic development officials alike for years. But the tanker project has
shown how it can work.
...In 2007 George Freeland of the Jackson County Economic Development
Foundation and Larry Barnett of the Harrison County Development
Commission went to the Paris Air Show to show support for Mobile in the
competition to build the tanker. There is no mystery as to why Barnett and
Freeland felt it important: A win for Mobile would spill over to Mississippi.
...“We have been working with Mobile to market and to demonstrate the
overall capacity of the I-10 aerospace corridor through a host of different
venues,” Freeland said in 2007. “We were in Paris to show a level of regional
support and collaboration for the tanker project and to demonstrate to the
international aerospace industry our collective wherewithal and capacity to
support new aerospace development.”
...Farnborough this year was a continuation of that process, but on a larger
scale. Freeland, Barnett, Verdell Hawkins of Mississippi Power and
representatives of the Mississippi Development Authority were part of a group
of about 90 officials from Alabama, Florida and Mississippi who attended.
While they were all there to represent their own area, they were also part of a
broader aerospace region.
...Freeland said all the participants had meetings with prospects, and no doubt
much of the talk was about their own area. But all of them had the option of
discussing the region as well as part of the pitch.
...Barnett and Freeland may well illustrate how a regional approach can work.
Barnett heads up Harrison County’s economic development effort and
Freeland Jackson County’s. But they were there are representatives of the
Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Economic Development, a group of six
South Mississippi counties.
...Freeland’s business card says he’s with the Alliance, though it also gives his
position with the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation. The
idea is to get the prospect interested in “South Mississippi.” At an international
event like Farnborough, said Freeland, the individual communities are
secondary to South Mississippi.
...Freeland said that in South Mississippi, there are some projects more
appropriate for one area than another. A large aircraft manufacturer, for
example, would be steered towards Hancock County, which has a site that
was a finalist for the EADS and Boeing project.
The results
...The tanker remained a key talking point at Farnborough.
...“That’s one of the reasons we got in some of the doors – people wanted to
see what we have to offer,” said Barnett. “People that we met with
understood the Gulf Coast better because of the tanker project. A lot of
attention was put on us because of the KC-45 tanker project.”
...Barnett said he and Freeland had around 40 visits with companies.
...“We came away with active, real live projects that we are pursuing,” said
Barnett.
...Barnett and Freeland said about 60 percent of the visits they had were
related in some fashion to the tanker project. But what’s particularly
significant about that is that 40 percent of the meetings were projects that
have nothing to do with the tanker.
...“They are not projects of the size of the tanker project, but they are good
size companies, some small, some medium,” said Barnett. Freeland and
Barnett said they have up to 10 active projects on the table, and some will be
decided within a year.
...But they are not the only ones to come away with prospects.
...Officials from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties told the Pensacola News
Journal that they returned with several leads. Evon Emerson, president and
CEO of the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, said one lead
resulted in a proposal being sent out in July.
...Whether that project is the same as the ones Freeland and Barnett were
talking about is unclear, but it points out one of the realities of regional
cooperation. While they willingly discuss the broader region to get prospects
interested, once that happen, the economic development officials then
compete with each other to get a project in their back yard.
...Barnett said a trip to Farnborough does not necessarily bring immediate
rewards, but he considers it an investment that stands a good chance of
producing payoffs down the road.
...“We have to be out there telling them who we are, so I think it’s an
investment in the future,” said Barnett. “We’re speaking face-to-face with
executives. In trips like this we find those companies that have projects, and
not just walking up to them at shows.”
...Barnett said the personal contact is important in all businesses.
...“They begin to know us. It’s a way of building a relationship,” said Barnett.
- David Tortorano, Tcp
October 2008
Air Show in London in July, they had just received word that the Air Force
tanker project would likely be rebid and that building the planes in Mobile was
not a certainty.
...Disappointed, yes. But one thing was clear: tanker or no tanker, the entire
controversy had put a spotlight on the Gulf Coast region – individual areas and
the region in general – as a viable location for aerospace activities. Now was
the time to leverage that attention.
...“We are a burgeoning aerospace community. That has not changed,” Bill
Sisson, then-vice president of economic development for the Mobile Area
Chamber of Commerce, told the Mobile Press-Register before the trip.
...“The assets within this aerospace corridor … are still relevant,” George
Freeland, executive director of the Jackson County Economic Development
Foundation, told the Mississippi Press before the trip.
...Cindy Anderson, executive director of Florida’s Team Santa Rosa
Economic Development Council, told the Press-Register that aerospace and
defense has been a target industry for her county for the last decade and that
wouldn’t change.
...What has changed is the level of understanding of the value of a regional
approach. There is little doubt the tanker has played a major role in getting the
region’s economic development officials to talk more about their mutual
interests and to work together.
...What they all seem to know is this: Yes, there is already a viable aerospace
corridor between New Orleans and Northwest Florida. But the tanker would
be what one official called a “game-changer,” an addition to the corridor with
still untold rewards.
...It could represent the foothold EADS and other foreign aerospace
companies use to enter the largest aerospace and defense market in the world
at a time when aerospace companies emphasize of value of international
projects like the F-35. It could be an opportunity for the United States, for a
change, to benefit from offshoring.
...Although the game-changing project was given another setback in
September when the Pentagon opted to punt the entire issue to the next
administration, the Gulf Coast and its aerospace corridor will remain in the
spotlight.
The corridor
...The Gulf Coast has had an aerospace corridor for a long time. The
Interstate 10 region between South Louisiana and Northwest Florida is home
to aerospace activities that include Louisiana’s Michoud Assembly Facility,
Mississippi’s Stennis Space Center and Keesler Air Force Base, Mobile’s
Brookley Industrial Complex and Florida’s pilot training and aerial weapons
development programs in Pensacola, Milton, Fort Walton Beach and Panama
City.
...But talking about the aerospace corridor and use of the phrase is of more
recent vintage. During the opening of an unmanned aerial vehicle fabrication
plant in Mississippi’s Moss Point in 2006, Northrop Grumman CEO Ron
Sugar referred to what he called an emerging corridor. Later, former
Mississippi State University President Robert Foglesong told Alliance Insight
that under the right circumstances the Gulf Coast could become an aerospace
“gorilla.” Leroy Barnidge, a vice president at Northrop Grumman, highlighted
the aerospace corridor in his presentation at the University of South
Mississippi economic forum in Biloxi in July.
...Yet despite all the growing aerospace programs in the region, none has done
for the corridor what the tanker program has done: place a persistent spotlight
on the region’s aerospace activities.
...That spotlight first focused on the region in the summer of 2005 when two
Gulf Coast sites – Alabama’s Mobile and Mississippi’s Kiln – were on the list
of four finalists for the EADS plant. The spotlight became more intense when
in late February the Air Force selected Northrop Grumman and EADS to build
the tankers – modified A-330s – at the new plant in Mobile.
...Although the General Accountability Office in June upheld a protest by
Boeing, citing flaws in the Air Force’s selection process, hardly a day passes
that there’s not some type of news, national and international, concerning the
tanker. It ranges from substantive stories about the process to stories of
politicians taking pot shots at workers from another.
...In this country the controversy over the tanker pits politicians from the Gulf
Coast against politicians from Washington State and Kansas. In Europe, which
buys many U.S. defense products, it’s seen as an indicator of whether the U.
S. defense market will be open or shut. Both Boeing and Northrop have spent
huge amounts of dollars in public relations campaigns that range from radio
spots to internet, magazine and newspaper ads.
...But what’s at stake is huge, for Boeing’s aerospace workers in the
Northwest and for the Gulf Coast’s growing effort to become internationally
known for its aerospace activities.
The game-changer
...For the Gulf Coast, the tanker project would add the European Aeronautic
Defence and Space Co. to the nascent aircraft production portion of the
aerospace corridor. Observers understand the tanker is no less significant for
the Gulf Coast region than Mercedes-Benz was for the creation of Alabama’s
auto industry.
...Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., speaking to elected officials and investors at the
Coastal Gateway Economic Development Authority (a partnership of
Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia and Monroe counties in South
Alabama), said that if the Defense Department again picks Northrop/EADS,
“it will be a game-changer unlike any we have seen in our lifetime.”
...Steve Nodine, chairman of the Mobile County Board of County
Commissioners, felt it enough of a game-changer that he made it his mission
to drum up regional support for the project by going to other political bodies in
the region and getting them behind Mobile’s bid to bring political clout to the
tanker fight.
...Nodine visited the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary
of Gulf Breeze and downtown Pensacola, TEAM Santa Rosa, Escambia and
Santa Rosa county commissions, Biloxi Businessmen’s Association and the
New Orleans City Council president.
...Recent EADS moves seem to indicate the tanker is just the start.
...EADS CEO Louis Gallois, during a talk in New York in late August, said
that United States officials are now encouraging foreign competition in the
aerospace and defense industries and that EADS needs to increase its
presence in the United States to compete in the world’s biggest defense
market.
...“There is a window of opportunity which allows us to get access to a much
bigger number of sectors than in the past,” he said, according to the
Associated Press.
...Flight International reported in late August that a new job advertisement
seems to confirm EADS North America’s intention to use Airbus platforms to
compete for a variety of Boeing platforms flown by the U.S. Air Force.
...The ad at the EADS-NA web site was seeking candidates for a business
development director who would, among other things, “anticipate and provide
analysis and marketing strategy for Airbus platforms which could compete for
Air Force programs, such as E-4B, JSTARS, AWACS and other C2ISR
Platforms.”
...That EADS has its sights set on competing for other Air Force platforms is
not that surprising. It’s possible to see other foreign aerospace companies
thinking the same thing. And it seems clear economic development officials
from the region want to promote the Gulf Coast as an area that would
welcome the foreign aerospace companies.
New regionalism
...The common interest in the tanker may be the one thing that leads to more
regional cooperation. It has been a standard part of speeches from politicians
and economic development officials alike for years. But the tanker project has
shown how it can work.
...In 2007 George Freeland of the Jackson County Economic Development
Foundation and Larry Barnett of the Harrison County Development
Commission went to the Paris Air Show to show support for Mobile in the
competition to build the tanker. There is no mystery as to why Barnett and
Freeland felt it important: A win for Mobile would spill over to Mississippi.
...“We have been working with Mobile to market and to demonstrate the
overall capacity of the I-10 aerospace corridor through a host of different
venues,” Freeland said in 2007. “We were in Paris to show a level of regional
support and collaboration for the tanker project and to demonstrate to the
international aerospace industry our collective wherewithal and capacity to
support new aerospace development.”
...Farnborough this year was a continuation of that process, but on a larger
scale. Freeland, Barnett, Verdell Hawkins of Mississippi Power and
representatives of the Mississippi Development Authority were part of a group
of about 90 officials from Alabama, Florida and Mississippi who attended.
While they were all there to represent their own area, they were also part of a
broader aerospace region.
...Freeland said all the participants had meetings with prospects, and no doubt
much of the talk was about their own area. But all of them had the option of
discussing the region as well as part of the pitch.
...Barnett and Freeland may well illustrate how a regional approach can work.
Barnett heads up Harrison County’s economic development effort and
Freeland Jackson County’s. But they were there are representatives of the
Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Economic Development, a group of six
South Mississippi counties.
...Freeland’s business card says he’s with the Alliance, though it also gives his
position with the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation. The
idea is to get the prospect interested in “South Mississippi.” At an international
event like Farnborough, said Freeland, the individual communities are
secondary to South Mississippi.
...Freeland said that in South Mississippi, there are some projects more
appropriate for one area than another. A large aircraft manufacturer, for
example, would be steered towards Hancock County, which has a site that
was a finalist for the EADS and Boeing project.
The results
...The tanker remained a key talking point at Farnborough.
...“That’s one of the reasons we got in some of the doors – people wanted to
see what we have to offer,” said Barnett. “People that we met with
understood the Gulf Coast better because of the tanker project. A lot of
attention was put on us because of the KC-45 tanker project.”
...Barnett said he and Freeland had around 40 visits with companies.
...“We came away with active, real live projects that we are pursuing,” said
Barnett.
...Barnett and Freeland said about 60 percent of the visits they had were
related in some fashion to the tanker project. But what’s particularly
significant about that is that 40 percent of the meetings were projects that
have nothing to do with the tanker.
...“They are not projects of the size of the tanker project, but they are good
size companies, some small, some medium,” said Barnett. Freeland and
Barnett said they have up to 10 active projects on the table, and some will be
decided within a year.
...But they are not the only ones to come away with prospects.
...Officials from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties told the Pensacola News
Journal that they returned with several leads. Evon Emerson, president and
CEO of the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, said one lead
resulted in a proposal being sent out in July.
...Whether that project is the same as the ones Freeland and Barnett were
talking about is unclear, but it points out one of the realities of regional
cooperation. While they willingly discuss the broader region to get prospects
interested, once that happen, the economic development officials then
compete with each other to get a project in their back yard.
...Barnett said a trip to Farnborough does not necessarily bring immediate
rewards, but he considers it an investment that stands a good chance of
producing payoffs down the road.
...“We have to be out there telling them who we are, so I think it’s an
investment in the future,” said Barnett. “We’re speaking face-to-face with
executives. In trips like this we find those companies that have projects, and
not just walking up to them at shows.”
...Barnett said the personal contact is important in all businesses.
...“They begin to know us. It’s a way of building a relationship,” said Barnett.
- David Tortorano, Tcp
October 2008
The game-changer
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