...Regional cooperation has been a matter of faith in economic development circles for years
now. It’s a standard part of speeches from politicians and eco-nomic development officials alike.
...But South Mississippi kicked it up a notch when two economic development officials went to
this summer’s Paris Air Show to show support for Mobile, Ala., in the competition to build an
Air Force tanker. They were part of the Alabama contingent.
...The reason goes beyond the immediate Northrop-EADS and Boeing fight to win the $40 billion
contract to build the next generation of aerial tankers. If Northrop-EADS wins, it will reinforce
the Gulf Coast as an aerospace center, and South Mississippi as an integral part of the corridor.
...“We are not in competition for a site here. What we’re trying to do is, when a project site has
been decided, show regional support for a contract to come to this region,” said George Freeland,
executive director of the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation.
...“We spent time with EADS executives and Northrop Grumman executives, to show them that
we’re behind this project,” said Larry Barnett, executive director of the Harrison County
Development Commission.
Regionalism
...On the surface, the competition is between Boeing, which plans to build the tankers in
Washington State, and the Northrop-EADS team, which opted for Mobile. But under the
surface, it boils down to a fight between two regions.
...The I-10 corridor region between South Louisiana and Northwest Florida is no newcomer to
aviation. New Orleans is home of the Michoud Assembly Facility, Mississippi has Stennis Space
Center, Mobile the aviation-focused Brookley Industrial Complex and northwest Florida has
Pensacola Naval Air Station and Eglin Air Force Base.
...The range of aerospace activity includes military pilot training, weapons development,
propulsion system testing and more.
...For the most part it has not been seen as a coherent region acting in concert, but that’s
beginning to change. During the opening of a UAV center in Moss Point in 2006, Northrop
Grumman CEO Ron Sugar said he sees an emerging aerospace corridor.
...This year Mississippi State University President Robert Foglesong said he’s noticed the wealth
of aerospace activity and said that under the right circumstances it could become an aerospace
“gorilla.”
...Leroy Barnidge, a vice president supporting Tanker Programs for Northrop Grumman, said
there are two world centers for aerospace industry – Toulouse, France, and Seattle, Wash. “I
really think there could become a third aviation center in the world, and that could be the greater
Mobile area.”
...The greater Mobile area, according to Barnidge, includes the Mississippi counties of Jackson,
Harrison, George, Hancock, Stone, Greene, Perry and Forrest. They’ll receive an immediate,
significant impact if Northrop-EADS gets the contract, he said.
...That impact will extend eastward as well, to Pensacola and beyond. In fact, because of the size
of the project, Barnidge thinks the entire Southeast will receive both direct and indirect benefits
from the project.
The Mercedes lesson
...The lessons of Mercedes-Benz in Alabama are not lost on economic development officials: Get
a big enough production facility that requires a large supplier base and it could cause a paradigm
shift in the future of a region.
...In 1993, Alabama was a novice with the auto industry, and it was criticized for the size of the
incentives used to land the marquee company. But years later, it’s clear it delivered more than
promised. Today, Alabama is a center for the auto industry.
...The tanker project holds that kind of hope. It brings the promise of a long-term $100 billion
impact on the Gulf Coast. While it’s a given that it will attract suppliers, it could go beyond that
by paving the way for additional U.S. and foreign aerospace facilities.
...Barnidge points out that the Gulf Coast region, in addition to its aerospace activities, also has a
large shipbuilding infrastructure and related activities that provide a degree of syner-gism that,
combined, could make the Gulf Coast an economic “empire.”
...“A few years ago, there was a very heated and thorough site search process that ultimately led
to the decision to propose Mobile as the location for the KC-30 project. EADS was focused on a
site search to identify the region of the country that could best support the long term success of
this project,” said Freeland.
...“What brought us here is a level of research and due diligence conducted by EADS that clearly
demonstrated this region of the Gulf Coast, and particularly the area that we define as the I-10
corridor, has the intellectual and physical capital necessary to support this project in the decades
to come.”
Paris Air Show
...Northrop Grumman officials have said the KC-30 tanker program will create 5,000 jobs in
Alabama and generate an additional $280 million annually in economic growth in Alabama. But
the impact will go beyond that state.
...“A KC-30 tanker win will have an unprecedented impact not only in Alabama, but also in the
entire Gulf Coast region,” said William J. Canary, president and chief executive officer of the
Business Council of Alabama.
...And that’s what brought Freeland and Barnett to Paris. They went as members of the
Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Economic Development, a group representing six counties in
South 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,” said Freeland. “We were in Paris
specifically 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.”
...Both Freeland and Barnett did make a pitch to suppliers.
...“We met with a host of different or potential tanker contractors that communicated to us their
clear intentions to relocated or locate operations in close proximity to Brookley,” said Freeland.
...The Air Force does not plan to pick a winner until the end of the year, so it remains to be seen
what will eventually come to the Gulf Coast. EADS already has an engineering center at
Brookley Field and says it’s in Mobile for the long term, tanker project or not. – Tcp
October 2007
Aerospace
Paris: Raising the regional bar