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By Andrew J. Manuse/ Daily News Staff
The group responsible for keeping Natick Labs and Hanscom Air Force Base open will now focus on building a Massachusetts-dominated defense-technology industry.
The Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative, established in 2003 by the Waltham-based Massachusetts High Technology Council, was part of an event yesterday highlighting the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems program and how it will benefit New England.
That program is the Army’s modernization effort, which will automate much of the military’s operations and make the battlefield a safer place for U.S. soldiers, according to the council.
While the initiative’s previous efforts saved 33,000 jobs at Hanscom and the Army’s Natick Soldier Center during the Pentagon’s 2005 Base Realignment and Closure round, the group now will help the state’s high-tech companies capitalize on $6.8 billion of research and development money slated for the Future Combat Systems program here. The program will be "a key economic driver" for the state’s economy, according to Christopher Anderson, president of the Waltham-based council.
Future Combat Systems will involve technologies such as unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, remote-controlled artillery and equipment that connects U.S. soldiers electronically over a secure military network.
Nationwide, the Future Combat Systems program will cost the Army $120 billion over 30 years, and will create 15 brigades, fully capable of operating anywhere in the world, even if uninvited, according to Lt. Gen. Dan Zanini, deputy program manager for Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC.
The technologies will be rolled out for use in battle in phases, but testing on some of them has already begun, Zanini said.
SAIC and Boeing, the contractors hired by the Army, will have hired 700 companies nationwide by the end of this year to work on several aspects of the program, according to Zanini.
Ranch Kimball, the state’s secretary of economic development, said the general defense industry in Massachusetts already supports an estimated 65,000 to 85,000 jobs, which can be compared with the 17,000 to 30,000 jobs supported by the biotech industry here.
Kimball, who also spoke yesterday, said the defense industry is an "incredibly important part" of the state’s technology economy.
The Future Combat System, which will support only part of that defense industry base, currently involves 26 Massachusetts companies, such as ron Systems Corp., where yesterday’s event was held in Wilmington, iRobot Corp. in Burlington, Netegrity Inc. in Waltham, EComp in Ashland and Systinet Corp. in Natick.
Textron Systems is working on technologies such as disposable sensors that soldiers involved in urban warfare can leave behind them when raiding a building to "watch their back."
iRobot, the company commonly known for its "artificially intelligent" vacuum cleaner, has deployed 300 of its PackBots in Iraq and Afghanistan. The remote-controlled robots are used in urban warfare and caves to sense biological and chemical weapons as well as enemy personnel hiding behind corners.
While these robots come back to Massachusetts in pieces from time to time, they have prevented soldiers from returning in body bags, according to Thomas Ryden, director of government sales and marketing for iRobot.
The Natick Soldier Center, which works with several companies in and out of Massachusetts, is building components for U.S. soldiers so they will literally sit within the Future Combat System platform, according to Jean-Louis "Dutch" DeGay, an equipment specialist for the center. Soldiers will personally be equipped with infrared, thermal, global positioning and radio sensors that will identify other U.S. Army soldiers to prevent friendly fire.
"We are transforming the soldier into a secure laptop connected to a secure Internet to push and pull data," said DeGay. "They're part of the collective; a soldier has the ability to see what everybody sees and vice versa."
Soldiers, who already control PackBots, will have access to unmanned air vehicles, which can support them by locating and firing on the enemy from above.
The Massachusetts companies involved with the Future Combat System currently support 200 cutting-edge science and engineering jobs, according to U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Lowell, a House Armed Services Committee member who spoke at the event.
"Our military superiority has resulted from weapons quality and technology advancements enabled by a robust foundation of basic research," said Meehan. "To keep our edge, we must continue investing in R&D."
Meehan said the Future Combat System program will thrive in Massachusetts, "where technology and innovation have long been a cornerstone of our economy." He said the state would also need to invest in science, technology, engineering and math education to ensure there are highly skilled workers to fill future jobs in the growing Massachusetts industry.
Andrew J. Manuse can be reached at amanuse@cnc.com or 508-626-3964
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