Committee seated to bolster defense aerospace industry

August 27, 2009 4:04 PM

Sue Book

Sun Journal Staff

A new committee was seated by North Carolina’s Eastern Region in Kinston this week to help North Carolina attract defense-related aerospace industry.

Already in the works, the Defense/Aerospace Advisory Committee formally activated the 18-member committee on the heels of Gov. Bev Perdue’s return from a Southern Governor’s Association meeting in Virginia where discussion of advances in that sector did not include North Carolina, a state with among the largest concentration of military installations in the country.

The committee, which was brought together first on Wednesday, has members from the Eastern Region’s board and area leaders connected to military and aerospace industries, economic developers, academics and government officials. On the committee from Craven County are Tom Braaten, director of Coastal Carolina Regional Airport and a retired MCAS Cherry Point commander, and Mark Meno, head of the Air Vehicle Engineering Department at Fleet Readiness Center East aboard MCAS Cherry Point.

N.C. Eastern Region CEO John Chaffee said the committee will serve as a think tank on needs, opportunities, strengths and strategies for development of a defense-aerospace business cluster in the region. It will look at issues including research, business creation and retention, and workforce development. It will also promote networks to encourage greater collaboration.

The N.C. Eastern Region’s 13 counties presently have a defense-aerospace cluster of about a dozen companies employing about 5,000 workers — mostly at Fleet Readiness Center East aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

Chaffee said there is the potential for about 20 percent growth over the next five years.

“The committee will bring together the region’s leaders to develop strategies that will most effectively strengthen our emerging defense-aerospace cluster,” he said. “Ultimately, the region will benefit as a result of the committee’s work from increased investment by new and expanding defense-aerospace business.”

While the region’s economy has gained from the presence of several significant private defense and aerospace companies like Honeywell, Eaton, and AAR, the creation of the committee is largely precipitated by the decision of Spirit AeroSystems to locate at the Global TransPark and the State of North Carolina’s emphasis on developing this cluster, Chaffee said.

Spirit, the world’s largest supplier of commercial airplane assemblies and components, plans its startup at the GTP in June 2010, he said, and has enhanced the Eastern Region’s ability to promote the cluster’s potential as a significant economic engine in the region.

Sen. Richard Burr was meeting on Thursday afternoon in Kinston with three of the new committee’s members — Spirit AeroSystems leader Rick Davis, GTP Director Darlene Waddell, and N.C.’s Eastern Region Vice President Len Kulik.

N.C.’s Eastern Region was established by the General Assembly to promote economic development in the 7,000-square-mile area including Craven, Pamlico, Jones, Carteret, Lenoir, Onslow, Pitt, Wayne, Wilson, Nash, Edgecombe, Duplin and Greene counties. About a million people presently live in that area.

Sue Book can be reached at (252) 635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.

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Committee members and support group members:

NCER’s Defense/Aerospace Advisory Committee

Calvin C. Anderson, colonel, U.S. Air Force, ret.

Andy Anderson, colonel, U.S. Air Force, ret.

Leigh Harvey McNairy, former military affairs assistant to N.C. lieutenant governor

Billy Wooten, Kanban Logistics

H. Martin Lancaster, former U.S. Rep. and retired N.C. Community College System president

David Bauer, Lenoir Community College, Spirit AeroSystems project

Paul Kauffmann, ECU Engineering Department Chairman

Darlene Waddell, N.C. Global TransPark