L-3 garners $34.6M aviation maintenance contract

L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace of Madison, Miss., was awarded a $34,689,207 contract Oct. 26 for maintenance support services for T-1A, T-6A, and T-38C aircraft at Columbus AFB, Miss. Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 29, 2019. Source: Defense Department, Oct. 26, 2012.

Golden Triangle firms may bid on AF helo

The Air Force has issued a request for proposals for 112 new Combat Rescue Helicopter and interested firms – based on a September industry sign-up sheet – include AgustaWestland, Boeing, Dayton, GE Aviation, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Maritn, Northrop Grumman, Sikorsky and EADS North American’s American Eurocopter, which makes SAR and medical helicopters at its Columbus, Miss., plant. However, money-crunchers at the Pentagon have capped the Jan. 3 due date for bids at $6.8 billion which may cause firms to think twice because of past failures in the bidding process. Source: Defense News, Oct. 28, 2012.     

Research park not in jeopardy, MSU official says

Mississippi State University’s vice president for Research and Economic Development claims that the closure of one firm from the Thad Cochran Research Park in Starkville isn’t an indication that the entire aerospace research park is in jeopardy. However, the VP’s concern presently is how the closure affects MSU, which owns some of the technology developed by SemiSouth; and reaching an agreement that the university may be able to retain some of those employees. Source: Columbus (Miss.) Dispatch, Oct. 23, 2012.

Research park not in jeopardy, MSU official says

Mississippi State University’s vice president for Research and Economic Development claims that the closure of one firm from the Thad Cochran Research Park in Starkville isn’t an indication that the entire aerospace research park is in jeopardy. However, the VP’s concern presently is how the closure affects MSU, which owns some of the technology developed by SemiSouth; and reaching an agreement that the university may be able to retain some of those employees. Source: Columbus (Miss.) Dispatch, Oct. 23, 2012.

SemiSouth’s closure costs Cali firm $60M

A California company will have to write off its $60 million investment in Mississippi’s first homegrown technology firm after the Starkville-based SemiSouth Laboratories announced last week it was closing its operation at Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park. A Power Integrations official says the 2010 investment in the Mississippi State University-faculty founded labs, which produces power conversion and aerospace application components, was "disappointing" but that risks are inherent in business. SemiSouth’s 90 employees will be laid off. There has been no specific date announced for closure. Source: The Associated Press, Oct. 22, 2012.

MSU-Thad Park firm closing its doors

An East Mississippi silicon carbide semiconductor company, started by current and former Mississippi State University faculty, appears to be closing its doors at the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park, according to a release from MSU. SemiSouth Laboratories produces power conversion and aerospace application components. No date was given for the closure. Source: Starkville (Miss.) Daily News, Oct. 20, 2012.

EADS North America skeds media event

EADS North America’s CEO Sean O’Keefe will reveal results of the firm’s voluntary flight demonstration for the U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout program at an 8 a.m. (CT) event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., prior to the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting. Earlier this month, EADS North America completed a series of high-altitude demonstrations with a pair of helicopters to showcase its AAS-72X+ rotary craft. The AAS-72X+, an armed off-shoot of the Army’s UH-72A Lakota helicopter, is to be built at the firm’s American Eurocopter facilities in Columbus, Miss. Source: Defence Professionals, Oct. 16, 2012.

GE Aviation announces Wave 1 hiring for new Ellisville plant

GE Aviation’s Ellisville, Miss., manufacturing plant is nearing completion and the firm, and Mississippi’s Governor Phil Bryant, announced Oct. 11 that a hiring process is to begin in November. The 340,000 square-foot composites manufacturing facility, located 25 miles NNE of Hattiesburg and 9 miles SSW of Laurel, will begin a first wave of hiring Nov. 5 for the production of aircraft engine components. GEA expects to hire 250 personnel within five years. Wave 1 hiring begins with production associates. Those positions will be posted Nov. 5 at the WIN Job Center in Laurel, Miss. Job hires will begin work in March. GE Aviation’s new plant is the firm’s second in Mississippi and represents a $56 million company investment. Source: Y’all Politics, Oct. 11, 2012.

Mississippi aerospace firm announces layoffs

A central Mississippi aerospace firm with 2012 defense contracts awarded in excess of $275 million is reducing the size of its Systems Field Support staff facilities in Madison, north of Jackson, by nearly 30 employs. L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace is basing that decision on defense budgets. L-3 Vertex is a provider of a broad range of electronic systems used on military and commercial aircraft. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of L-3 Communications which has 11,000 employees at 300 locations worldwide. Source: WBLT-TV, Tupelo, Miss., Oct. 9, 2012. 

Raytheon's Forest plant earns top billing on DoD contract

Raytheon’s Forest, Miss., plant will receive 66 percent of work on a Defense Department contract worth more than $15.8 million, along with Space and Airborne Systems’ Electronic Warfare Systems at Goleta, Calif., for a fixed price contract for 48 integrated multi-platform launch controllers (IMPLCs) for installation on F/A-18 aircraft. IMPLC is a component of the AN/ALE-50(V) countermeasures decoy dispensing set and the Integrated Defensive Electronics Countermeasure System. The majority of the work will be in Mississippi; but other aspects will be performed in California (25 percent), and Nashua, N.H. (9 percent), and is expected to be completed in January 2014. Contract funds in the amount of $7,881,260 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. Source: Defense Department.

Mississippi's L-3 aerospace earns trainer contract

Madison, Mississippi’s L3 Communications Vertex Aerospace LLC was awarded Oct. 1 with a $12,111,176 contract modification for trainer maintenance services at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, and Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2013. The contracting activity is 82 CONS/LGCA, Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. Source: Defense Department. Oct. 1, 2012.

Madison's L-3 awarded $82M+ in defense pacts

Mississippi’s L-3 Communications Systems Field Support, Vertex Aerospace, LLC, was awarded a pair of Defense Department contracts for the Navy last week totaling more than $82 million. On Sept. 28, L-3 was awarded a $55,683,390 firm-fixed-price modification to a previously awarded contract to exercise an option for aircraft maintenance and logistical life cycle support for 54 C-12 aircraft for the Navy and Marine Corps. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo., (34 percent); Corpus Christi, Texas (12 percent); Winnipeg, Canada (34 percent) and various locations both inside and outside the continental United States (20 percent) including: Yuma, Ariz.; New Orleans; Miramar, Calif.; New River, N.C.; Patuxent River, Md.; Manassas, Va.; Beaufort, S.C.; Japan, Cuba, and Bahrain. Work is expected to be completed in September 2013. And on Sept. 26, L-3 was awarded a $27,293,685 indefinite-delivery requirements contract for TH-57 helicopters. Services to be provided include repair and/or overhaul of aircraft, engines, avionics and related components. Work will be performed at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Milton, Fla., and is expected to be completed in March 2013. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is contracting activity for both projects. Source: Defense Department.

North-Central Miss. counties partner to form REPM

The North-Central Mississippi counties of Choctaw, Montgomery and Webster announced efforts Oct. 1 to join together to create a regional economic development partnership to attract businesses and jobs to their communities. The three counties’ Board of Supervisors all voted separately to join together to form “Regional Economic Partnership Mississippi” (REPM). In addition, REPMS will partner with Mississippi State University’s College of Business to leverage already-existing programs. Source: WTVA-TV Tupelo, Miss., Oct. 1, 2012.

State takes over schools in aero-industry friendly Oktibbeha

The State of Mississippi is declaring an extreme emergency for East Oktibbeha High School and moving to remove the superintendent and take over the district school system following a third consecutive year of failing marks at EOHS. It will be the state’s first school to be taken over under the state’s New Start School Program. The county is home to a star-studded group of aerospace industries - Stark and GE Aerospace, Aurora Flight Sciences; American Eurocopter - and Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering of which the Raspert Flight Research Laboratory produces innovative and collaborative research, and undergraduate and graduate studies, for all sectors of industry throughout the region. Source: Jackson, Miss., Clarion Ledger, Sept. 28, 2012.