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Lowcountry security: 'Advanced security' a linchpin for region’s future |
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Tuesday, 26 June 2007 |
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Photo by Dan McCue / The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command was created by the Navy to provide sailors and marines in combat with every possible electronic advantage.
By Dan McCue
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties have become a nexus for the nation’s burgeoning homeland security industry. Billions of dollars are spent in the region on a wide range of security-related initiatives.
But to automatically assume that Sept. 11, or even the continuing threat of terrorism in one of the nation’s largest port and tourism centers, is the catalyst behind that trend would be wrong.
“The real change in the region’s direction, in terms of the work we do, was the result of the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1993,” said Fred L. McCarthy, a board member with the Charleston Defense Contractors Association.
“With that BRAC and its closure of the Charleston Naval Base, the local industry was dramatically transformed,” he said. “In the years since, defense contracting has evolved from shipbuilding and a heavier kind of industry to more of a high tech, engineering-based cluster.”
AngelouEconomics recommended fostering what it terms “advanced security” as a linchpin for the region’s future.
While the growth of homeland security initiatives in the Lowcountry has been rapid, it appears to be occurring purely as a result of the industry’s internal momentum rather than as the result of civic boosterism or finely honed incentive packages.
This appears to hold true whether the companies in question are household names such as defense contractors Raytheon and Honeywell, or entrepreneurial ventures such as Rotomotion of Mount Pleasant, a manufacturer of robot-surveillance helicopters.
For the majority of active homeland security contractors in the Charleston area, that anchor is the Space and Naval
Warfare Systems Command, the government-sponsored information technology agency created by the Navy to provide sailors and marines in combat with every possible electronic advantage.
Four years ago, defense-industry consultants Booz Allen Hamilton was asked by the Navy to perform an analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of its various materials suppliers around the country.
The report found that SPAWAR Charleston was the Navy’s most cost-efficient engineering organization when measuring workload in relation to overhead expenses.
That ranking kept Charleston running, from a defense-industry perspective. Today, SPAWAR employs 2,500 individuals directly, while contractors employ an additional 10,000 locally.
The hallmark of the community, as illustrated by contractors’ close proximity in the Aviation Business Park near Charleston International Airport, is a willingness to collaborate on projects.
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