County leaders attend European air show
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Santa Rosa County Commissioner Gordon Goodin of Navarre had a "full plate of meetings" during the Farnborough International Air Show near London last week.

TEAM Santa Rosa, the nonprofit economic development arm of the county, is spending $50,000 to market Santa Rosa County to aerospace and aviation suppliers and small manufacturers.

Attending the air show near London was only one part of the marketing plan. The county commission spent $3,000 to send Goodin to the air show, and TEAM Santa Rosa added another $3,000 to cover Goodin's lodging and transportation in London.

TEAM Santa Rosa also sent other representatives to the show to recruit prospective clients. A Web site was created to market the county's aerospace capabilities to international companies.

"Even if this KC-45 tanker project is not approved for Mobile, this whole region is now on the radar as never before for companies looking to locate near aviation centers like our military bases," Commissioner Don Salter told his colleagues. "This is the time to step out and be aggressive in our marketing and hopefully bring some highpaying jobs to the county."

Commissioners stressed the positive points resulting from the otherwise discouraging decision by the Pentagon to order the tanker project be re-bid. The U.S. Government Office of Accountability urged the U.S. Air Force to re-bid the project after an appeal by Boeing Corp., which argued that Northrop Grumman originally was unfairly awarded the project to build 179 fueling tankers in Mobile.

"Boeing had 111 complaints about the bidding process that put the project on hold. But the Secretary of Defense is only rebidding seven issues," Salter said. "And we believe Northrop Grumman has a two-year head start on providing the tanker to the Air Force, since they have already built their refueling tanker and already tested it.

"Boeing has not even begun to manufacture their tanker. And that building and testing will take at least two years."

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants the issue settled by December.

"We cannot wait until December, however, to see if the tanker is going to be built in Mobile if we want the opportunity to draw some of these Tier 1 suppliers," Salter said. "The Secretary also has said this 50- year-old tanker should have been replaced 10 years ago."