Published: October 17, 2007 11:09 am      

Defense team humming

$10 billion contract, 1,000 local jobs on line

With production not scheduled to start until 2009, you might say it’s premature to get excited about a project for which two Johnstown defense companies are vying with competitors across the country.

But when the winner is awarded a $10 billion contract creating 1,000 jobs ... oh well, we’re excited.

Lockheed Martin and JWF Defense, a subsidiary of JWF Industries, are locked into nationwide competition for a contract to build a military vehicle to replace the well-known Humvee – about 140,000 of them to be exact; the entire fleet.

That’s huge.

John Polacek, chief operating officer of JWF Defense, said the partnership’s prototype already is causing a stir.

“The buzz we heard at the AUSA show from the top military people really tells me that we’re out in front on this competition,” Polacek said last week.

That’s very encouraging.

He was talking about the previous week’s Association of the U.S. Army’s showcase event held in Washington, D.C., where the local version of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) prototype was unveiled.

The JLTV program is a joint venture by the Army and Marines seeking a replacement vehicle for the Humvee.

The Lockheed team, to its knowledge, is the first to produce a working prototype, giving the company what it thinks is a definite edge in the early competition.

Kathryn Hasse, director of the tactical wheeled-vehicles programs for Lockheed Martin’s Systems Integration facility in Owego, N.Y., said, “The biggest advantage it gives us is the ability to help shape the customers’ expectations, refine their specifications and help them to visualize how the final product should be.”

Any edge on the competition is important at this point, Hasse said, because the timeline on the project is beginning to tighten.

War or no war, military experts see a bright future for the JLTV in America’s defense arsenal. Making Johnstown a big player in its production would give a big boost to our economy.

At the same time, it would be a real feather in the cap of our growing defense industry, which already is attracting attention not just nationwide but worldwide.