Military projects may light tech fire
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
When U.S. Rep. Ed Case thinks about the Air Force telescopes on Haleakala, the University of Hawai'i and C-17 cargo jets at Hickam Air Force Base come immediately to mind.
Likewise, the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kaua'i is linked to the Maui High Performance Computing Center and the possibility of an aircraft carrier at Pearl Harbor.
The multimillion-dollar military and civilian research and development expansions create many smaller ones, and Case believes a critical mass is forming.
"What you've got here is individual efforts by each of the services that, in and of themselves, are major. But the sum total is greater than the parts."
The Hawai'i Democrat said the state is looking at the largest across-the-board expansion of federal investment in decades, an increase that will propel a still-fledgling high-tech industry and create a surge in jobs.
Defense spending of $3.96 billion in Hawai'i for 2002 remained second to tourism in fueling the state's economy.
"What I'm talking about is the coming into its own of the whole concept of dual-use technologies ... The growth of the technology industry in Hawai'i — it's been our ambition to make this happen," Case said. "We've always seen the potential of the symbiosis, but I think it's really starting to happen now."
Ann Chung, executive director of the Hawai'i Technology Trade Association, said technology with military and commercial applications is one of the fastest-growing tech fields, and good news for Hawai'i.
Chung doesn't think it's the Holy Grail alternative to tourism, because more needs to be done to build a strong venture capital community for that ever to occur.
But there's no doubt military investment in Hawai'i is on a roll; bases and services are benefiting from one another's expertise; and the technology factor is increasing multifold.
Take the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility: Already a key part of the nation's missile-defense efforts, PMRF may become the test bed for all-electric ship designs and work on free-electron lasers, electromagnetic rail guns and high-powered nonlethal microwave defense — a program that would mean the investment of hundreds of millions of new Defense Department dollars in Hawai'i.
About 12 years ago, PMRF was on the Base Realignment and Closure list. In fiscal 2003, by contrast, the Navy base had a hefty $164 million budget.
The Navy tests sea-based missile defenses at PMRF, and Army Theater High Altitude Area Defense rocket launches are expected in 2005.
Close to 275 companies now do business with PMRF, which has 800 to 900 employees and is the No. 1 high-tech employer on Kaua'i, said base commander Capt. Robert J. Connelly.
"We are going to continue to expand our capabilities to support a number of existing programs, which then in turn will not only provide (the Defense Department) and the Navy with tremendous capabilities, but the economic impact and contributions to the state as a whole are going to grow substantially in the next three, five, 10 years," Connelly said.
Hawai'i already was the No. 2 state in the nation (behind Virginia) for per-capita defense spending in 2002, at $3,045. A total of $772.3 million in defense spending recently was approved for Hawai'i for fiscal 2004 — up $89 million from last year, according to congressional officials.
"When you look at the sheer scope of what our federal government envisions for defense spending in Hawai'i — primarily military — it is really very large, and it is going to take Hawai'i's position in our nation's overall defense positioning to a whole other level," Case said.
The end of the Cold War and a new military emphasis on Asia and the Pacific have placed a new Pentagon focus on Hawai'i, but the network of military technology has been growing for years. Hardware and tech-ware technology seemed poised for a twin takeoff.
The Air Force's Maui High Performance Computing Center provides calculations for PMRF missile testing by the Navy, which is looking at basing an aircraft carrier strike group at Pearl Harbor.
The Air Force, which is getting eight C-17 cargo jets at Hickam in 2005, could collaborate with UH on what would be the world's largest solar telescope on Haleakala. The cargo jets will be used to transport the Army's planned $1.5 billion Stryker brigade of wheeled armored vehicles.
The Defense Department awarded UH a contract of up to $181 million in 2001 to run the Maui supercomputer, which helps process images from the Maui Space Surveillance System, which tracks missile flights from PMRF.
For fiscal 2003, the Maui High Performance Computing Center had a budget of $20 million, and the space surveillance system spending totaled about $60 million.
The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, the state's biggest industrial employer with 4,700 workers, last year received $202 million for the nuclear refueling and overhaul of a second attack submarine.
The overhaul of the USS Bremerton followed similar work on the USS Buffalo — the first nuclear refueling at Pearl Harbor in a quarter century. The two-year projects have shifted more Navy ship repair to private shipyards here.
Officials estimate the shipyard contributed $560 million to the local economy in fiscal 2003 in salaries, contracted work and goods purchased, up from $446 million in 2000.
The shipyard also has a dry dock capable of accommodating the aircraft carrier that U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, would like to bring to Hawai'i.
According to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, defense spending in Hawai'i increased from $2.5 billion in 1986 to $3.96 billion in 2002, while the number of military personnel dropped from 134,000 in 1988 to 81,610 military members and their families in 2002.
Pentagon research, development, test and evaluation dollars have skyrocketed from $6.1 million in 1982 to $72 million in 2002, according to DBEDT.
The Hawai'i division of military contracting firm Orincon won a $25 million contract last year to help the Navy upgrade its submarine warfare Internet system.
Honolulu-based Science & Technology International is expanding to take advantage of the defense-related opportunities.
STI developed "hyperspectral" camera technology that can be used to spot enemy submarines underwater, and also used for whale counts, coral reef mapping and cancer detection. The firm recently more than doubled its work space and now has offices in three downtown high-rises.
Company president and CEO Nick Susner said more than 60 percent of STI's business is defense-related. The company has grown from 12 employees to 150 in 10 years, and Susner said it just won two government contracts worth $75 million.
"It will mean more jobs, more hiring in Honolulu," Susner said.
On Maui, the Air Force's space surveillance system and computing center, both based in Kihei, also are hiring. The 3.67-meter Advanced Electro-Optical System on Haleakala, which UH uses, is the nation's largest optical telescope for tracking satellites.
"We have more requests for our services than we can provide right now. So both the University of Hawai'i and (prime contractor) Boeing are hiring people," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey McCann, commander of Air Force Research Laboratories Detachment 15, which oversees both facilities. McCann said the Air Force also is hiring.
"We're in an upward trend right now," he said. "Boeing is receiving calls from ... scientists and engineers that want to conduct their work out here ... because of what we are doing — the research that we're conducting and the operational part of our mission as well."
The Navy's Connelly said seed money has been budgeted to study siting the Maritime Directed Energy Test Center at PMRF in fiscal 2008 or later. No decision has been made, but "we've been told by the program that (for the test center), the place to be, where they intend on coming, is PMRF," Connelly said.
Jennifer Goto-Sabas, chief of staff of Inouye's Honolulu office, said the amount of "plus-ups" in the defense appropriations budget for Hawai'i came to about $137 million five years ago, and more than $300 million this year.
Inouye is "committed to making that investment on the smart stuff — the technology stuff where you don't need a big manufacturing apparatus," she said.
"Part of our strategy now is, OK, we've been supporting you guys, we've been feeding you. Now it's your turn to be able to pitch your technology and be able to get on what they call the acquisition line," Goto-Sabas said.
"(Hawai'i firms) are starting to do that, but that's a sustainability piece that five years ago we were not even talking about," Goto-Sabas said.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
