for shipment.
A surprising number and variety of products being used by the military to fight the war in Iraq were manufactured in Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts.
In fact, the defense industry is one of the few growing sectors in the state’s economy, as small and large manufacturing firms ramp up their contracts to supply the U.S. Defense Department with the materials it needs to the fight the war.
No fewer than 108 contractors in Rhode Island are currently manufacturing products for the war effort, said John Cronin, CEO of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Extension Service, a manufacturing trade group. The firms range from multi-national defense contractors with facilities on Aquidneck Island to 100-year-old textile factories and machine shops that employ less than 100 workers.
The products being made here range from high-tech navigation systems used to guide Humvees through sandstorms, to chemical-resistant camouflage shells soldiers are wearing to help protect their bodies against sarin and mustard gases, to pressure-heated rotors that lift Apache helicopters off the ground.
“The military buys a lot of stuff, and Rhode Island has quite a bit of those contracts,” said Cronin. “There’s new defense business being generated again, and one of the biggest customers has become the Defense Department. It’s not just the companies down there on Aquidneck Island, other companies have significant involvement. We’re all responding to the demands created by the military action in the Gulf.”
Raytheon Co., a leading defense industry contractor with headquarters in Lexington, Mass. and a facility in Portsmouth, is accelerating production of new Tomahawk, Patriot, TOW and Javelin missiles. The munitions are not manufactured at its facility in Portsmouth, which engineers and manufactures U.S. Naval systems.
The Navy is currently firing Tomahawks in Iraq at a faster pace than they are being produced, according to a Bloomberg News report. The Navy has said it will spend as much as $2 billion over five years to buy 1,353 Tactical Tomahawks. Raytheon currently has orders for 192.
Special Forces for both the United States and Great Britain are using Middletown-based KVH Industries’ Tactical Navigation electronic digital compass system to navigate their Humvees, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and British Warrior tanks.
The navigation system, called TACNAV, has been highlighted in recent reports concerning operations conducted in sandstorms and at night.
KVH Industries defense business grew more than 100 percent in 2002, accounting for almost 40 percent of total revenue, and it is reasonable to expect that the company’s military business will continue to grow in the future, said Chris Watson, a spokesman for KVH Industries.
“We’ve seen an acceleration in our existing contracts (for TACNAV). Long-term, the contract is worth potentially $10 million to the company,” said Watson. “The benefit to the military-contracts side of our business is that while military procurement can take some time to get into, they are relatively recession proof.”
Bradford Dying Associates Inc. in Westerly, is the sole manufacturer of the outer shells used to make the chemical warfare suits being worn by troops in Iraq. In the last three months, Bradford Dye’s revenues have spiked 15 to 20 percent and 50 workers have been hired to help the firm meet the demand, said Michael Grills, owner of the company.
The factory is manufacturing about 100,000 yards of the nylon-and-cotton rip-stop fabric a day.
“I can’t say that I don’t feel proud of the company – we’re helping to outfit every soldier there,” said Grills. “People think that we’re warmongers and so forth. It’s not the case. You know, we produce these whether there’s a war or not.”
Duro Industries in Fall River is a major supplier of fabrics to the U.S. military for a variety of uses. The Duro factory is churning out its trademark DuroShield chemical protection fabric that will be used to make military tents, parachutes, heavy duty packs and lightweight apparel, said Dan Pezold, vice president of military and government fabrics.
In January and February, Woonsocket-based Northwest Woolen Mills shipped 370,000 wool-and-synthetic blend humanitarian relief blankets to locations in Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait, in preparation for the thousands of refugees expected to flee Iraq. The company is also the primary contractor manufacturing standard-issue blankets used by the U.S. Armed Forces, said Max Brickle, president of the company.
“Due to the conflict in Iraq, we probably had a 20-percent increase in business in first quarter,” said Brickle.
And many smaller manufacturers in Rhode Island are helping to outfit the military by supplying components and small parts to larger contractors dealing directly with the Defense Department, said Cronin. In East Greenwich, Casamerica Co., a cabinet assembly manufacturer, is making cabinets being used to house computer command centers in Iraq and Kuwait. Pilgrim Screw, a 40-man shop in Providence, is making fasteners and screws used in military helicopters, planes and weapons systems.
VR Industries, in Warwick, is making electronic circuit boards used in weapons systems, and American Industrial Castings, in East Greenwich, is providing a variety of parts for weapons systems. Arctic Tool, a machine shop in Warwick, has manufactured a variety of military parts. Cranston-based CI Hayes is heat treating high-pressure metals used to make bearings and rotors used in helicopters and submarines.
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