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News Index
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Soldiering on in Natick (Boston Globe)
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New commander pushing his vision to ensure Army research base's survival
By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | July 17, 2006
NATICK -- A new commander takes up his post next week here at the US Army Soldier Systems Center, a research site that recently survived the Pentagon's base closing and realignment moves.
But even before Brigadier General R. Mark Brown, 51, formally assumes command of the center, the only active-duty Army installation in New England, he is setting forth ambitious goals for his stewardship of a base that traditionally has been responsible for developing rations, clothing, shelters, and air-drop systems for the Army's fighters.
Brown will seek to strengthen ties with Boston-area businesses and universities, and accelerate technology transfer in and out of the base. He'll also work to hammer out a new strategic vision to harness the region's resources and position the 2,000-person soldier systems center to capitalize on the Pentagon's new war-fighting strategy with initiatives like its high-tech Future Force Warrior program.
His aim is to keep the local Army complex off future lists assembled by Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, planners. ``When the BRAC comes around again, as it inevitably will, I don't even want Natick to be in the discussion," Brown said during a visit to the site prior to the July 25 assumption-of-command ceremony at the soldier center.
The center, together with Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, another research-oriented facility, was targeted for closing in the most recent BRAC round. Both sites dodged the bullet last summer after a coalition of state business and government leaders, including Republican Governor Mitt Romney and Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy , successfully argued that the two bases let the Pentagon tap into the brainpower and intellectual capital of the region's academic research labs and high-technology industry.
A group emerging from that lobbying effort, the Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative, based in Waltham, is working to build on the momentum of the campaign to save the research bases by helping them expand their operations and their economic impact in the state. Aiding in that effort is a $200,000 planning grant awarded by the quasi-public John Adams Innovation Institute last month to set up a technology collaboration center at the soldier systems center.
Alan J. Macdonald , the initiative's executive director, conceded Massachusetts lags behind states like Maryland, Georgia, Florida, and Texas in providing public-private support for military bases. With Brown's arrival, however, he thinks Massachusetts can ramp up.
``Natick is already tremendously important to the region and it has the potential to be even more of a driver of economic activity," Macdonald said. ``There is a great post-BRAC opportunity to look at a new defining strategic vision for the base and its contribution to military capability. A fundamental priority of the military is finding ways to improve communications and acquiring, analyzing, and using information in an actionable manner in the combat environment.
``Massachusetts is the perfect place to do that," he said, ``because it has the greatest depth of relevant technology in the world."
Some of that technology was on display at the Textron Systems plant in Wilmington in February, when Army officials demonstrated a variety of weapons and communications technology, some of it built by Textron, Burlington's iRobot Corp., and other defense contractors, that will be part of its estimated $120 billion Future Combat Systems program over the next quarter-century. Feeding into that system will be the Future Force Warrior program under development in Natick.
That program draws on the expertise and herita
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Video: May 16 Breakfast with Congresswoman Tsongas at Mercury Computer Systems (7/7/08)
Governor Makes Case for Cyber Command at Hanscom (5/22/08)
Regional Effort Needed to Attract Cyberspace Command (4/25/08)
General Quenneville Tapped to Lead Regions Defense Voice (1/25/08)
Hanscom Could Be Site of Cyber Command Center (3/20/08)
Bay State Officials Target Air Force Cyber R&D Dollars (1/4/08)
Natick Labs: Business, Military Putting Their Brains Together (11/27/07)
Base Realignments Lead Tech Firms to Ocean State (11/20/07)
Amid Bio Push, Older Tech Firms Look for Love (11/16/07)
Collaboration is Critical to Mass. Defense Sector (9/7/07)
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