Jan 24, 2014
By Clifford Davis
jacksonville.com
The Department of Defense announced this week that three Jacksonville facilities won multi-million dollar government contracts.
The Boeing Company received a $17.8 million contract to upgrade F/A-18 Hornets with 92 percent of the work coming to Boeing’s Cecil Airport facility.
The facility began performing upgrades on the planes in 1999 and recently became the national center of component structural repair for the planes.
“Obviously we are excited about the additional work Boeing will be doing at Cecil Airport,” Michael Stewart, director of external affairs for the Jacksonville Aviation Authority said. “A company with the international exposure of a Boeing, we’re just proud to have them as a tenant at Cecil.
The cost-plus, fixed-fee contract was not competitively bid.
The most recent contract is an extension of a previous award for upgrades on F/A-18 A through D Hornets and F/A-18 E and F Super Hornets. The Jacksonville facility employs 252 people.
In a second contract, Jacksonville-based Reynolds, Smith and Hill architectural and engineering firm was one of three companies awarded a $10 million contract for work to enhance or replace elementary and secondary schools on U.S. military bases and other overseas territories.
Reynolds, Smith and Hill, begun in Jacksonville in 1942, faced-off with 45 other companies to win the firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery contract.
Also, on Friday Jacksonville’s Goodrich Corporation was awarded a nearly $7.6 million cost contract for “engineering design services and fabrication of a full-scale prototype submarine rotor component under the Hybrid Demonstration program,” according to the Department of Defense.
Gov. Rick Scott also announced Friday that Duval and Clay counties received Florida state defense grants of $275,000 and $250,000 respectively.
Duval County received $200,000 for Outlying Field Whitehouse, an airfield used to simulate carrier takeoffs and landings, and a defense reinvestment grant worth $75,000.
“In Duval County, the military and defense industry is credited with $11.9 billion in economic impact and 108,901 jobs,” according to the governor’s office.
In Clay County, Camp Blanding received $200,000 for a vehicle entrance security upgrade. This grant comes on the heels of a $729,000 state grant the base received in October 2013 for an early warning system.
Clay also received a $50,000 defense reinvestment grant.
All-told, the contracts and grants add up to roughly $36 million. The governor’s offices touted the impact for the entire state.
“Florida’s military and defense industry is responsible for $73.4 billion, or 9.4 percent, of Florida’s gross state product, which translates to jobs for 758,112 Floridians,” according to the press release.
Clifford Davis: (904) 359-4103
Source: http://bit.ly/1mO4wtY
