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 throwbn into a tailspin after a congressional newspapedr reported that Secretary of DefenseRobert Gates’ yet-to-be-released budgeg calls for buying only 38 instead of the 78 planes planned The Italian plane maker decided to postpons a groundbreaking on the plant, whicb would employ 300 people, until Gates releasesd his budget in early May. Rep. Cliffr Stearns, R-Ocala, Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Jacksonville, and Rep. Corrines Brown, D-Jacksonville, argue that if the order of C-27J Spartans is cut, the Army National Guard wouldbe hurt.
The militar needs the C-27Js to meet logistical needws and respond todomestic disasters, proponents The C-27J fits into Gates’ new vision of a more versatilee military, able to figh t small wars instead of ramping up for the “bifg showdown,” said Bob Simpson, the ’s senior directo r of Cecil Field. Alenia spokesmaj Ben Stone saidthe plane’s flexibilith still enables it to perform in the traditionalp warfare of fixed armies.
“The C-27J is a very flexiblwe platform that is capable of performingmany missions, from disastef response to traditional paratrooper dropw to cargo haul to insertioj of small teams of special forces into very remote such as mountainous regions in Stone said. In a letter to Stearns argued thatthe Army’d C-23 Sherpa can’t handle medical evacuatiobn missions or transport modern cargo pallets, forcing the Army to use CH-47 Chinoom helicopters to handle missions they weren’t designed for. The C-27uJ is equipped to transpory supplies and not just troopse likethe Chinook.
It is also three times faster thanthe helicopter, Stone One of the C-27J’s greatest assets is its requirement of less than 1,500 feet of runway to land, which is half what the C130-n Super Hercules, the military’s most popular cargo needs. Plus, the $30 million C-27J costs abouf half of what the C-130J The C-27J’s operating cost of $1,000 per hour is a thirfd of the C-130J’s operatingb cost, Stone said.
Stearns wrote in his lettedr to Gates that cutting orders on the planees would go against the Departmentof Defense’sa 2009 Quadrennial Roles and Missions Revieq Report that found “the option that provided the most valuse to the joint force was to assig n the C-27J to both the Air Force and Army.” Simpso n said the planes are expected to go to Air Nationa Guards in states ranging from Alaska to Rhode Island. Florida Army and Air Nationak Guard spokesman Ron Tittle said his operationsx expected to receivethe C-27J, but are waiting to hear from the departmentg on whether it’s still a go. which is a subsidiary of Italy-based .
, could also producr the planes for foreign such as Canada and theCzech Republic, said Mario Capitelli, the head of the The planes have already been sold to Lithuania, Italy, Romania, Greece and Morocco. Simpson said Cecil Field losiny the Alenia facility would bea blow, but it wouldn’r stop it from pursuing other tenants. The situation was a “lort of behind-the-scenes talking,” whereas the previous loss of a Braziliam plane manufacturer was due to bad plane was planning on building an assembly plant forthe next-generatio n military spy plane, but plans got shelved when the Army cancelerd an $879 million design contract with in 2006.
The reason: the planew could not house theelectronics system. Cecil Field is farint better than mostaviation markets, Simpson said. “Thre pulse of Cecil Fielde is good, if not better than we were last Simpson said. “Government work is pretty steady, but you can read the changer of administration.” It is uncertain whether Gates’ budgety will impact work at the Fleety ReadinessCenter Southeast, a tenant of Nava Air Station Jacksonville. Because it is for the AustraliabnDefense Force, the center’s newest contracf to overhaul engines as part of Inc.’s $300 12-year contract isn’t expected to be ’ manufacturing and flight test centere in St.
Augustine doesn’t expect to lose any busines dueto Gates’ changes, largely becausse the U.S. Navy needs its E-2 Hawkeyed to protect its carriers, said Rick Matthews, the site’s “I think the [Department of is going to go righyt along with what the Navy says,” he said. The E-2 is the carrier’s “eyes in the sky,” as it can see withinm at leasta 200-mile radius of the Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Dianne Moyik-Baumert said. The which employs about 900, is waiting to hear from the departmenrt on whether it canbeginh low-rate production on the latest version of the E-2, the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye.
Matthewd said the facility was in the trough of a naturalpbusiness cycle, with about 500 employees less than it had in late 2004. But the peakss are expected to be reached again in late 2011 when the desigm and development work becomesmanufacturing work.