SPA-WAR Lab demystified

By Jeanette Steele 6 A.M.APRIL 17, 2014
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SPAWAR employees move a brass model of LCS-1 the USS Freedom, one of the more recent additions to the Navy's fleet near the Model Range Arch. The Model Range Arch which is noticeable from areas near Point Loma is used to test high-frequency antenna transmissions using small-scale models. — John Gastaldo

San Diegans may be most familiar with SPAWAR’s campus in Old Town, the saw-toothed buildings running along Interstate 5.

The barn-like structures date back to World War II-era airplane manufacturing.

SPAWAR’s headquarters are there, moved from the Washington, D.C., area in 1997 in a round of military downsizing.

In Point Loma, the technology labs are housed in a hodge-podge of buildings located just north of the veterans cemetery and Cabrillo National Monument on the peninsula. The work done there ranges from cyber security to bomb-fighting robots to unmanned underwater vehicles to the dolphins and California sea lions trained to protect bays.

SPAWAR’s customers are largely the Navy and Marine Corps, though other branches of government also may commission work.

The military advisory council’s report provides a somewhat rare lifting of the curtain that usually shields the interior workings at SPAWAR’s labs in Point Loma.

In the past 20 years, researchers there have been awarded 800 patents, making it the top patent-generating warfare center laboratory in the Defense Department.

Ideas developed there often transfer to the private sector.

One example given in the Fermanian Institute report is Assure Controls, a Vista company marketing portable technology that rapidly tests water samples for toxicity. The system was used in cleanup of the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

If SPAWAR’s San Diego operations were a standalone company, it would rank 12th in the county for jobs. Qualcomm, for comparison, is third, and Sempra Energy is sixth.

Supporters of SPAWAR note that it supplies high-paying jobs — currently held by more than 160 people with a Ph.D. and 1,200 with a master’s degree, according to the report.

That’s a big reason why the naval command is important to San Diego’s economy, said Carl Luna, a political science professor at the University of San Diego and Mesa College.

“While the uniformed personnel are really important to the economy, all the defense-industry related jobs really drive those middle-, upper-middle class income jobs that we desperately need,” Luna said. “We’re really light on industries that produce that.”



SPAWAR also contracts out work to private companies in San Diego County.

The top two last year were Science Applications International Corp. (usually known as SAIC), with $160 million in contracts, and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., with $136 million.

There are scattered dark clouds on SPAWAR’s horizon next year, due to budget contraction.

Plans call for reducing the number of San Diego headquarters personnel by 20 percent between 2015 and 2019. The 4 percent annual cuts will likely be handled through attrition, so layoffs would be avoided, according to the Fermanian Institute analysis.

However, the Point Loma-based staff is projected for a 3 percent job increase in the coming fiscal year, followed by steady employment.

That means SPAWAR’s total payroll in San Diego County would reach $703 million in the 2015 fiscal year — a 3 percent bump.
The critical period will come a year from now, Blumberg of the military advisory council predicts. That’s when the president’s 2016 budget will be unveiled.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...pact-report/2/