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Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology - by Brendan Lynch Mass High Tech
Two years after the federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission report raised the specter of mass New England military base closings, the U.S. Navy's presence in Newport, R.I. is expanding -- and attracting tech companies to the Ocean State.
The Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport is growing by about 100 civilian engineers, who are working on projects reassigned from other bases that include radio communications, submarine antennae and towed-array sonar, according to John Riendeau, sector lead for the defense industry at the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp.
Moreover, the Navy's Officer Candidate School moved back to Newport, from Pensacola, Fla., in August, and the Navy Supply Corps School plans to relocate to Newport from Georgia in 2011 with a new building.
That growth has, over the last two years, encouraged four companies -- Adaptive Methods Inc., AEgis Technologies Group, Alaska Native Technologies LLC, and Paramount Solutions Inc. -- to open or relocate their businesses close to NUWC, Riendeau said. Rhode Island has "fared extremely well in the BRAC process," he said.
"Companies like the energy level. They like the action," said Riendeau. "They see opportunity that meets their business growth agenda."
Centreville, Va.-based Adaptive Methods opened its Rhode Island office in January 2006, when the company hired William Matuszak to be its vice president of mission system engineering. Before that, Matuszak had worked for five years as a civilian engineer at NUWC, working on sonar systems.
"We chose NUWC because they do research in the areas we want to work in and where we want to grow," Matuszak said.
Adaptive has three engineers working at its Middletown, R.I., office, and the company plans to hire four more engineers in 2008. That might not sound like a lot, but the incoming jobs are high-wage and high-skills, according to Riendeau.
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