VASCIC offers novel links and transforms a downtown

Return to Virginia Business - May 2001

Cover Story
Hampton Roads: A Special Report
VASCIC offers novel links and transforms a downtown

by Peter Galuszka

Rising just behind the World War I-era Victory Arch on the historic waterfront of Newport News, the building has a dramatic presence. Its curved, glass-enclosed angles mimic the lines of a very large ship. When the $58 million Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding and Carrier Integration Center (VASCIC) opens in July, nautical themes will truly come into play.

The new Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding and Carrier Integration Center in downtown Norfolk.
Photo courtesy Newport News Shipbuilding

Advanced nautical themes, that is. Navy personnel, engineers from nearby Newport News Shipbuilding and researchers from 11 Virginia universities will get to work developing a complex system of radars and other electronics for the (CVN-X), the next generation of nuclear aircraft carrier whose construction is expected within a few years. The system will guide carrier strike aircraft to target, coordinate with other ships and identify airborne, surface and underwater threats. “The warfare system will be the future of all warfare systems for the next class of carrier,” says Irwin F. Edenzon, vice president for Technology Development & Carrier Fleet Support at Newport News Shipbuilding.

VASCIC also will protect the Shipyard from surprise salvos launched by competing defense contractors. Although Newport News Ship is the only defense contractor capable of building an aircraft carrier from start to finish, it began worrying several years ago that changing bidding procedures could open up the business to others. A competitor could win a bid as primary contractor, perform the high value-added work, then sub-contract the metal-bending job of building the hull to the Shipyard.

Shipyard executives contacted Gov. Jim Gilmore with an idea of how to cement the shipyard’s involvement with the big-ticket aircraft carrier contracts, funnel research business to Virginia universities and maybe even spin off new high-tech firms. Rather than do everything in-house, says Edenzon, the Shipyard will “reach out into commercial industries and exploit as much as we can.” The new center will speed the integration of commercial developments in software, the Internet, computers and telecommunications with systems for carriers, submarines and other ships.

In the process, research dollars can be spread to state schools, such as Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University, the College of William and Mary, Hampton University and others that are participating in VASCIC. When it opens, the center will employ 450 workers, and from 100 to 200 more will work there as research demands. The state will spend another $40 million operating the center. The Shipyard will assume ownership of the facility in 2004.

VASCIC also shores up efforts to revitalize downtown Newport News, which in recent years has suffered from neglect. The Shipyard is leading rehabilitation efforts. Not only does it support VASCIC, it has spread its engineering department to three renovated buildings in the downtown area, including a former Sears, Roebuck & Co. department store. The novel cooperative approach not only may keep Newport News Shipyard viable, but it could transform the city’s downtown and turn it into an applied technology center.

Return to Virginia Business - May 2001