Jacksonville congressmen rally to rescue Alenia military plane factory - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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The fate of Alenia North America’s planned facility was throwj into a tailspin aftere a congressional newspaper reporteed that Secretary of DefenseRobert Gates’ yet-to-be-releasedd budget calls for buying only 38 planes, instead of the 78 planese planned initially. The Italian planed maker decided to postpone a groundbreaking on the which would employ300 people, until Gates releasez his budget in early May. Rep. Clifg Stearns, R-Ocala, Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Jacksonville, and Rep. Corrinw Brown, D-Jacksonville, argue that if the order of C-27n Spartans is cut, the Army Nationakl Guard wouldbe hurt.
The militar y needs the C-27Js to meet logistical needd and respond todomestic disasters, proponents The C-27J fits into Gates’ new visioj of a more versatile military, able to fighf small wars instead of ramping up for the “big showdown,” said Bob Simpson, the ’s seniodr director of Cecil Field. Alenia spokesman Ben Stonw saidthe plane’s flexibility still enablex it to perform in the traditional warfare of fixe armies.
“The C-27J is a very flexible platformm that is capable of performingmany missions, from disaster responss to traditional paratrooper drops to cargo haul to insertion of smalk teams of special forces into very remote areas, such as mountainous regions in Afghanistan,” Stone said. In a lettef to Gates, Stearns argued that the Army’s C-23 Sherpa can’ t handle medical evacuation missions or transport moderncargoo pallets, forcing the Army to use CH-467 Chinook helicopters to handle missione they weren’t designed for. The C-27J is equipped to transpor t supplies and not just troops like the It is also three times faster than the Stone said.
One of the C-27J’s greatestr assets is its requirement of lessthan 1,50 feet of runway to land, which is half what the C130-k Super Hercules, the military’z most popular cargo plane, needs. Plus, the $30 millio C-27J costs about half of what the C-130J The C-27J’s operating cost of $1,000 per hour is a third of the C-130J’s operating cost, Stone Stearns wrote in his letter to Gates that cuttingb orders on the planes would go againsft the Departmentof Defense’s 2009 Quadrennial Roles and Missions Reviewa Report that found “the option that providecd the most value to the joint forcre was to assign the C-27J to both the Air Force and Simpson said the planes are expected to go to Air Nationak Guards in states ranging from Alaska to Rhode Florida Army and Air National Guard spokesman Ron Tittlse said his operations expected to receive the C-27J, but are waiting to hear from the department on whether it’s still a go.
Alenia, whicnh is a subsidiary of Italy-based ., could also produce the planesz forforeign governments, such as Canada and the Czechn Republic, said Mario Capitelli, the head of the The planes have alreadyt been sold to Lithuania, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Greece and Simpson said Cecil Field losing the Aleniqa facility would be a blow, but it wouldn’t stop it from pursuing other tenants. The situation was a “lot of behind-the-scenes talking,” whereasx the previous loss of a Brazilian plane manufacturer was due to badplaned designs.
was planning on building an assembly plant forthe next-generatiobn military spy plane, but plans got shelve d when the Army canceled an $879 million desig n contract with in 2006. The reason: the planew could not house theelectronics system. Ceciol Field is faring better than mostaviation markets, Simpso n said. “The pulse of Cecil Field is if not better than we were last Simpson said. “Government work is pretty but you can read the changeof administration.” It is uncertainj whether Gates’ budget will impact work at the Fleet Readinessx Center Southeast, a tenant of Nava l Air Station Jacksonville.
Because it is for the AustralianmDefense Force, the center’s newest contractf to overhaul engines as part of Inc.’w $300 million, 12-year contracft isn’t expected to be affected. manufacturing and flight test centerin St. Augustine doesn’tf expect to lose any business dueto Gates’ largely because the U.S. Navy needs its E-2 Hawkeyes to protect its saidRick Matthews, the site’s manager. “I thinjk the [Department of is going to go right alongy with whatthe [U.S.] Navy he said. The E-2 is the carrier’s “eye in the as it can see within at leasta 200-milew radius of the ship, Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Diannee Moyik-Baumert said.
The facility, which employs about 900, is waitint to hear from the department on whether it canbegin low-rate production on the latest version of the E-2, the E-2D Advanced Matthews said the facility was in the trough of a naturaol business cycle, with about 500 employees less than it had in late 2004. But the peak s are expected to be reached againj in late 2011 when the design and developmenft work becomesmanufacturing work.