By James Taylor
The Lawton-Fort Sill community is nearing the rollout of the first building in the Fires Innovation Science and Technology Accelerator (FISTA) Innovation Park. This is happening for all the right reasons and at the right time for creating high-tech jobs in Research & Development (R&D), Science & Technology (S&T) for our Army and for Lawton-Fort Sill outside the fence.
It is the direct collaboration of industry, academia, defense and defense-related organizations that supports the predetermined needs and requirements of the U.S. Army Futures Command - Cross Functional Teams (CFTs) of Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) and Air and Missile Defense (AMD) and Fires Center of Excellence (FCoE) – driving innovation and integrating capabilities for the warfighter.
This puts an important stake in the ground and makes Lawton-Fort Sill more relevant than it has ever been before. Moreover, it brings high-tech jobs and the economic development that comes with it.
This is a significant paradigm shift for the relationship between Lawton-Fort Sill, the State of Oklahoma and for our nation’s military in countering Russia and China’s global military expansion. Unless we become more aggressive in challenging their threat, they will achieve the dominance they seek. This isn’t just about artillery and missile technology but rather extending the combined capabilities of $12-16B in R&D and S&T far beyond what has been considered possible within recent decades.
Specifically, this means that the day-to-day mission within the FISTA Innovation Park is to assemble the appropriate resources in order to meet the needs of the U.S. Army Futures Command’s two CFTs and the U.S. Army’s FCoE. Aligning the innovative concept through R&D and S&T in developing functional prototypes of weapons, emerging research in incorporating innovative next generation systems, extending technological capabilities and STEM programs that can be tested by the Soldiers on Fort Sill until that prototype meets or exceeds the needs of the warfighter.
Once this has been achieved the next step is to develop the capacity for production of this new, innovative technology for the future. Is this idea and concept too challenging – even possible? The Army believes in these possibilities and is looking for defense and defense-related industries to establish a presence in the FISTA Innovation Park so that these ideas become reality – the time is now!
It is more important than ever that the FISTA Innovation Park supports the CFTs’ focus areas and responds to new and innovative requirements in stride. We as a community, along with our business leaders, must bring together all state and regional players, industry, government laboratories, and education, who can provide needed capabilities and collaboration to ensure the accomplishment of the Army Futures Command mission. We must create the needed government and industry teaming to ensure a broad range of capabilities exist, rapidly on call, for the LRPF, AMD CFTs and the FCoE.
The vision for the FISTA Innovation Park comes in part from utilizing the past 20 years of technology and research development home grown in Huntsville, Alabama, as our benchmark for success in collaboration with defense and defense-related industries. Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal is a garrison hosting a number of major tenant commands whereas Fort Sill is a garrison for two of the U.S. Army’s top eight priorities #1 LRPF and #5 AMD. We can emulate Huntsville’s great success. When I first visited Huntsville in 2000 while on active duty at U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha, NE, to my recent visit several months ago, the economic growth and development is very evident of a community committed to supporting Redstone Arsenal and its tenants. Redstone Arsenal had a population of 1,946 as reported in the 2010 census to a government workforce that now averages 36,000 to 40,000 personnel daily.
The FISTA Innovation Park has the budgetary oversight through the Lawton Economic Development Corporation’s FISTA Committee comprised of local business leaders and resources. The National Defense Authorization Act for 2020, 2021 and 2022 are a deliberate part of funding pathways to success in meeting the needs of U.S. Army Futures Command CFTs and FCoE. This process is identified through persistent programmatic request components and by utilizing more modern, efficient acquisition prototype systems rather than the low and slow historical, arduous regulatory nature of outdated government procurement.
By another objective comparison, we have been advised by our representative at the U.S. Economic Development Administration office in Austin, Texas, that the nearest organization most like what we are striving to achieve through the FISTA Innovation Park is the Sandia Science & Technology Park (SS&TP) located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As strategically outlined on their website, SS&TP is a consortium of Public-Private Partners in STEM education, local government, municipal- ities, economic development, state and federal legislative delegations, institutions of higher learning, defense and defense-related industries and the military continues to be a critical part of this facility that was formed in 1998.
As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable foundation, SS&TP has become a 300-acre high-tech campus with 49 companies in 26 buildings and more than 2,300 employees consisting of high-tech jobs for engineers and researchers. The cumulative impact on gross receipts tax revenue to the City of Albuquerque is $22.5M (1998 – 2017). Cumulative increase in wage and salary disbursements attributable to the technology park activities exceeds $5.4B (1998 – 2017). Average salary for each full-time job on the technology park is $98,000 and the average salary for each full-time job in Albuquerque metropolitan area is $48,000.
For the FISTA Innovation Park, we are working to establish our place for the future of Lawton-Fort Sill. As a matter of public record, the City of Lawton has solidly stepped forward in support of the FISTA Innovation Park. This commitment by the Lawton leadership has not gone unnoticed by potential defense organizations and defense contractors who are making strides to establish either their program office, or move their entire business, here in order to work directly with organizations on Fort Sill (appropriately managed through the FISTA Innovation Park). You will soon know more and look forward to what it will bring to Lawton-Fort Sill – with high-tech jobs and ancillary jobs for this very diverse community.
The time is now...to support the future benefit of the FISTA Innovation Park – high-tech jobs!!!
James Taylor is Director of the FISTA Innovation Park.