One tack for America’s First Region

By Frank Roberts, originally published January 2, 2011, in The Virginian-Pilot

Under the leadership of the Hampton Roads Partnership a few years ago, the area’s cities and counties adopted the moniker “America’s First Region.” Bumper stickers and logos began appearing all over the place – on Hampton Roads Transit buses, billboards, city websites and so forth. The slogan is now ubiquitous.

But what does it mean? Is it just a catchy phrase that recognizes the historical significance of what began here in 1607 when Capt. John Smith and the original settlers arrived in the new world? Or does it describe where we as a region are headed and how we see ourselves in the future?

The Virginian-Pilot editorial on Dec. 26 (“Plan B shouldn’t depend on Defense”; see below for repost in its entirety) articulates the argument for diversification of the Hampton Roads economy to mitigate regional reliance on the Defense Department. Failure to do so – now – likely means that the “America’s First Region” moniker will recognize only what happened here 400 years ago, not where Hampton Roads is going.

Hampton Roads should leverage the slogan to establish a meaningful identity like that of “Silicon Valley” or the “Research Triangle” – and be first in something other than receiving Defense Department spending.

Hampton Roads is fortunate to have one of the world’s greatest natural deepwater seaports in the western world as our backyard. We need to let that natural geography influence our thinking and see it for its potential. It provides a natural laboratory wherein a research and development base can emerge that accelerates experimentation with technology to accomplish all the necessary functions of commercial and naval shipping protection – and then matures capabilities and operating concepts and tactics, techniques and procedures for exportation around the world.

A key component of that effort can and should be slanted toward the use and integration of unmanned systems. Unmanned aviation systems have developed rapidly and remain key contributors to the war effort in Afghanistan; they are also being more widely used in border protection in the U.S. Still, operation in American airspace seems problematic.

Unmanned maritime systems, though, already have a toehold – if not a footprint – here in Hampton Roads. The longest continuously operating autonomous underwater vehicle, “Fetch,” was developed right here. Its inventor lives and works here. William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science Autonomous Systems Laboratory is heavily engaged in marine research using early Fetch platforms.

The Navy Combatant Craft Division at Little Creek leads the Navy’s autonomous maritime navigation program, which has already demonstrated totally autonomous surface vehicle operations in a force protection environment. In 2009 the Office of Naval Research and the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, or AUVSI, conducted the second annual student competition in Hampton Roads for autonomous surface vehicles. The June 2010 competition doubled in size to 13 teams from as far away as Taiwan. The fourth competition is scheduled for June 2011 in Virginia Beach.

With the above, and the presence of Department of Homeland Security, Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads and the Virginia Port Authority, the foundation to turn Hampton Roads into a center of excellence for research, development, experimentation, manufacture and integration of unmanned systems capabilities focused on the port and harbor security mission is in place. As The Pilot editorial charges, “regional leaders should be planning, with… urgency.”

The Hampton Roads chapter of AUVSI is poised – and is the logical choice – to spearhead and lead a regional business and economic development planning effort built on unmanned systems.

With the support and backing of regional leaders from both the public and private sector, the chapter is ready to address Plan B.

Frank Roberts, a retired Navy captain, was the first executive director of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, serving from 2006 to 2010. He is a 13-year member of AUVSI. He is currently President of FAReaching Solutions – providing Strategic Consulting for a Better Future. FAReaching Solutions specializes in Trailblazing & Rainmaking to assist clients with their economic development interests.

Editorial:  Plan B shouldn’t depend on Defense

For much of America’s history, this region has risen and fallen with the fortunes of the U.S. military. Ships have been built and home-ported here. Troops have been trained and billeted here. Wars have been planned and fought here.

All that action has meant life and death. It has meant money in the economy and people in our communities. But it has also left us with a culture and business climate that overwhelmingly depends on federal spending.

Washington, it hardly need be said, is now broke.

As they should, Hampton Roads’ congressional delegation, the governor, local leaders and their lobbyists are battling on Capitol Hill to preserve every dollar of military spending flowing to our region and Virginia.

Sen. Jim Webb is pushing to move Africa Command – and its 1,500 people – to this region. He and others are arguing that Hampton Roads, with its high concentration of military expertise and personnel, provides efficiencies that can’t be found anywhere else.

They are right, and their arguments should succeed.

Nevertheless, Virginia’s lawmakers will almost certainly lose on some counts, given the threats: the looming closure of the Joint Forces Command, the transfer of an aircraft carrier to Florida, the continued shrinking of the surface Navy, the constant worries over Oceana Naval Air Station. Even more than that may be vulnerable, as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates seeks to find $100 billion in cuts.

The stakes for the region are daunting. As Old Dominion University Professor Jim Koch noted in this year’s State of the Region report, Defense spending doubled in the past decade, accounting for three-fourths of our economic growth. It has kept our unemployment lower than elsewhere and helped keep wages higher.

The conclusion is inescapable: When your economy depends on military spending, cuts hit hard. JFCOM’s closure, Koch concludes, could cost 10,000 jobs and pull $1 billion out of the economy.

There is a way to soften that blow, and others like it, and to make this region less vulnerable to the vagaries of Washington: Hampton Roads must do more than fight wars and get ready to fight wars.

The impact of commerce on the region is every bit as old as the military. Tourism remains a growing business, as does health care; both added more jobs in the past decade than any other sector, according to Koch. Job losses have come in manufacturing, construction, retail and shipping.

Some of those declines reflect national trends. But some reflect inattention: There has been less intellectual and economic investment in alternatives to defense industries because the region really hasn’t needed them.

It needs them now.

Hampton Roads, with its winds and tides, is in a unique position to make energy – especially green generation – part of its future. The modeling and simulation that supported JFCOM has become a growing industry of its own, buttressed by academic programs and corporate investment.

With America’s most advanced port and improved rail connections to the west, the region is ready to take advantage when a widened Panama Canal opens. Tourism continues to grow, especially in Virginia Beach. Both depend on adequate highways, which depend on investment from Richmond and Washington.

Lawmakers and leaders in Washington should work hard for Hampton Roads. They should make the argument that this region provides irreplaceable military advantages. They should fight for every job and every billet that makes sense.

At the same time, regional leaders should be planning, with just as much urgency, to ensure that Hampton Roads is less dependent on the Defense Department.

Virginian-Pilot editorials represent the consensus of the editorial board, which is independent of the newsroom. Board members are Maurice A. Jones, publisher; Donald Luzzatto, editorial page editor; and Christina Nuckols, Candy Hatcher, Daryl Lease and Shawn Day, editorial writers.