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Night-Vision Giant ITT Sees Jobs in Its Future

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

By Duncan Adams, The Roanoke Times, Va.

Sep. 27--ITT Night Vision plans to add 250 jobs and invest up to $51.8 million to expand operations at its Roanoke County plant as the company ramps up production to meet the military's booming demand for its night-vision goggles and monoculars.

News first broke in mid-September about ITT Night Vision landing a military contract with the potential to be worth as much as a whopping $1.4 billion over five years. At the time, a spokeswoman for the developer and manufacturer of night-vision goggles declined to speculate about how the contract with the U.S. Army might affect employment and capital investment at the plant off Plantation Road.

That changed Monday, when ITT executives, a congressman, and state and local officials happily talked dollars and jobs and celebrated the nation's technology-equipped "war fighters" conducting combat operations at night.

Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Mike Schewel said he welcomed the "great jobs that pay extremely good wages." He said ITT Night Vision's products help save American lives in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The company said the average hourly wage at ITT Night Vision is about $16.

More than 1,000 people already work for ITT Night Vision, a division of ITT Industries.

Gary Aicher, the division's president and general manager, said the jobs will be added as the expansion and the production ramp-up proceed during the next 17 months. But some hiring will occur fairly soon, he said, to ensure that workers will be fully trained as production increases. Aicher said ITT Night Vision works with the Virginia Employment Commission to screen applications.

The federal government will pay up to $40 million to help fund ITT's expanded production, with dollars allocated for production equipment, work force additions and work-area upgrades. ITT will spend money to buy land for parking, to construct a new building and renovate others, and to improve production processes. The new building will have about 19,000 square feet.

All expansion will occur at ITT's Plantation Road site. Aicher said a tree planted as a memorial for victims of terrorism on Sept. 11 will be transplanted to allow for expansion.

A $700,000 grant for the project from Gov. Mark Warner's Governor's Opportunity Fund will be matched by Roanoke County, whose Economic Development Authority will reimburse to ITT in coming years a total of $700,000 in new taxes paid by the company. In addition, a grant of $150,000 from the Virginia Department of Business Assistance will help ITT train new workers.

ITT Night Vision's agreement with the Army is known as an "indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity" contract. Unlike firm-fixed priced contracts, IDIQ contracts allow the Army to grant awards to contractors based in large part on their ability to deliver the goods on time. ITT competitor Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. also landed a $1 billion IDIQ contract for "enhanced third generation" night-vision devices and spare image intensifier tubes.

Last week, ITT Night Vision, a division of ITT Industries, reported it had received an initial award of more than $160 million for night-vision goggles and monoculars, along with $40 million more for production facilities and equipment. About 85 percent of ITT Night Vision's sales result from military contracts.

U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said Monday that the company's night-vision devices have "revolutionized warfare around the world."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Roanoke Times, Va.

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ITT,

Source: The Roanoke Times

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