With the U.S. Navy pledging an extra $8 million for research and testing on a spy plane, nearly 300 jobs at L-3 Communications in Waco are safe for now, U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, said Monday.

Edwards visited the massive L-3 plant at Texas State Technical College airport to share the good news with employees.

Edwards said he has received a commitment from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead that L-3 will be getting an additional $8 million for its work on the EP-3E surveillance plane.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, shakes hands with L3 Communications employees after announcing an 8 million dollar extension for the Waco company to continue work on Navy surveillance planes.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

“We plan no layoffs related to this program,” said James Burkhardt, president of Platform Integration for L-3 Communications.

Burkhardt, who joined Edwards in making the announcement, praised him for pursuing the funding for L-3.

EP-3E’s steady use

The EP-3E has been a workhorse in the Middle East, flying intelligence missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The planes periodically fly into Waco’s L-3 plant for upgrades on their sophisticated equipment.

In the government’s current fiscal year, which ends in September, a total of $51.2 million is earmarked for the program in Waco.

“The Navy had planned to ask for approximately $50 million for this (in the next fiscal year), but in the reorganization of their priorities there was a last-minute change, and it got zeroed out,” Edwards said.

Suddenly, the jobs of 297 employees at L-3 who work on the EP-3E program began to look shaky.

1,900 employees

The plant employs more than 1,900, making it Waco’s largest industrial employer.

Edwards said he took his concerns to Navy officials, including Roughead and Rear Adm. Terry Kraft.

He said they assured him the Navy had no problems with the workforce or the performance of L-3 in Waco.

“But the Navy was looking for funding to push its long-term unmanned aerial vehicle program,” Edwards said.

“I let (Roughead) and Adm. Kraft know that I respect the Navy’s interest in a UAV program, but that I was concerned that during the seven to 10 years it would take to get that program fully operational, we would possibly be taking risks for our troops in harm’s way by not continuing to upgrade the EP-3E in response to adaptations continually made by our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

After studying the matter, the Navy agreed to add $8 million for EP-3E “research, development, testing and evaluation,” and for possible upgrades to the plane’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, Edwards said.

The funds will be added to the 2010 governmental budget year.

But in 2011, which begins Oct. 1, no money is yet allocated to EP-3E for this testing, L-3 spokesman Lance Martin said.

Buying time

Edwards said the $8 million allocation buys time for him and L-3 to pursue their case with the Navy “that the program should be kept vibrant.”

He said he thinks EP-3E planes can complement the unmanned spy planes, adding that L-3’s decade of work on the EP-3E could give it an inside track on contracts related to UAVs.

Work on the plane in McLennan County dates back at least a decade, when the Waco defense contracting facility was a unit of Raytheon.

At that time, Edwards secured a $61 million program converting a P-3 aircraft to an EP-3E filled with sensitive instruments to report on enemy communications and movements.

Robert Duke, senior director of Navy programs at L-3 in Waco, said seven EP-3E planes are parked at the plant now, undergoing testing and preparation for upgrades that Edwards said should continue.

mcopeland@wacotrib.com

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