Providence Journal January 29, 2003
Rhode Island Defense Industry Group Launches Campaign to Keep Navy Bases Open
By Andrea L. Stape
PROVIDENCE, R.I.--With the federal government planning to close more Navy and Army bases around the country in 2005, a Rhode Island-based defense industry group is refusing to sit around and wait for the ax to fall here.
The Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance, a group of 40 companies, and the Newport County Chamber of Commerce have launched a campaign to keep Newport's Navy facilities off the government's short list.
Working from a $ 220,000 grant from the state, the chamber and SNEDIA spent the past five months studying the defense industry's impact on Rhode Island's economy.
This afternoon, Bob Mushen, chairman of SNEDIA, plans to head to the State House to share some preliminary economic data with members of the House of Representatives and raise awareness of the importance of the industry. "There is a portion of the (base realignment and closure) preparation process that involves state and local input," said Mushen, making it important for state and local politicians to have an idea how much the state's economy is fueled by defense work.
Based on early estimates from the study, between 15,000 and 17,000 Rhode Islanders work in the defense industry -- about 4 percent of the state's work force -- according to Keith Stokes, executive director of the Newport chamber and a member of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation's board of directors.
Defense-related companies and activities in the Ocean State have an annual payroll of about $ 1 billion, according to the chamber and SNEDIA's estimates. Navy and defense-related companies on Aquidneck Island alone are responsible for $ 811 million of that total.
Although Newport's Navy facilities haven't been singled out for closure in 2005, Mushen and his group are eager to make a preemptive strike.
"The (base realignment and closure) is a real thing. . . . The process has already been initiated. The criteria for developing that list is happening in 2003," said Mushen, who is also a program manager for Anteon Corp., a defense contractor with more than 300 workers in Middletown.
"This is not a couple-of-years-away problem," he said. SNEDIA and the chamber are trying to "raise the level of awareness of what the defense industry means to Rhode Island," said Mushen.
Rhode Island is host to the Naval Station Newport, which includes the Naval War College, the Naval Education and Training Center and the Navy's number-one undersea research laboratory, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. NUWC distributed $ 188.9 million in contracts to other businesses in 2001. About 88 percent went to Rhode Island companies.
This large Navy presence has fostered clusters of small, and large, defense-related companies -- many of which supply or support the Navy, said Mushen. Raytheon, a major defense contractor, employs 1,500 people in its Portsmouth facility and has a payroll in Rhode Island of more than $ 100 million, according to Stokes, of the chamber.
"Our goal is to take this important, hidden industry out into the public and (have them) join us in supporting the continued growth of this industry," said Stokes.
Federal base closings and realignments over the past 10 years have spared Newport, and in some cases Newport has benefited, said Mushen, a former commander of the NUWC. But that doesn't mean Newport will remain untouched in the next round of cuts, he said, and that could have a major impact on Rhode Island's economy.
The Bush administration has estimated that 20 percent to 25 percent of existing military bases are surplus, and that the Pentagon could save $ 3 billion a year by eliminating extraneous facilities, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a nonprofit, public-policy organization based in Alexandria, Va. that focuses on defense issues.
SNEDIA plans to make a formal presentation of its finished report on the state of the defense industry in Rhode Island in about 30 days, said Stokes. And in addition to briefings of politicians in Rhode Island and Washington, the chamber and the alliance plan to launch a marketing campaign.
In addition to Mushen, Stokes will be present at the House meeting today, which is sponsored by Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence. In addition, Michael McMahon, counsel to the governor for economic development and community affairs and executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, as well as officials from the Naval Station Newport, will be there.
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