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War holds no terror for Florida firms

Three defense contractors are among those reaping the benefits of war by supplying the tools needed to fight the battles.

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published July 21, 2006

Another day in the war on terror, another $22.7-million to companies in the state of Florida.

Last Friday, the day after the Congressional Budget Office put a $290-billion price tag on military spending in Iraq, two Florida businesses were awarded contracts for the consumables of war: camouflage vests, rifle parts, body armor.

One business, Knight’s Armament in Titusville, is owned by a fourth-generation citrus farmer who started creating military gadgets 20 years ago and now runs a $150-million business that sells weapon systems to the military. The other, Point Blank Armor in Pompano Beach, landed two contracts in one day: one for bullet-proof material that will be sewn into vests by federal inmates in Mississippi, and another directly with the military for desert-use body armor. Congress has appropriated $432-billion for military operations since Sept. 11, 2001.

Billions of those dollars have flowed to the Florida operations of giant defense contractors like Raytheon and General Dynamics in St. Petersburg and Lockheed in Orlando. But, as the Defense Department awards on July 14 show, smaller companies – and even federal prisons — share in the business of war.


Knight’s Armament Co., Titusville
Award: $6.6-million for aluminum rail systems that allow accessories to be mounted on M16 rifles and M4 carbines
Previous contract: in March, received $110.8-million award for modular weapon system
Company owner: C. Reed Knight
Employees: 300

Point Blank Body Armor, Pompano Beach
Award: $6.9-million subcontract for desert camouflage, ballistic material for soldiers’ outer tactical vests
Total contract: $17.3-million awarded to UNICOR Federal Prison Industries, which will use visually impaired workers in Salisbury, Md., to cut the material and federal inmates in Yazoo City, Miss. to sew the vests

Point Blank Body Armor, Pompano Beach
Award: $9.2-million for desert-use body armor
Previous contracts: five awards totalling $113.4-million so far this year from Defense Department for soldiers’ body armor
Employees: 880
Owner: DHB Industries Inc., Pompano Beach

Source: U.S. Defense Department awards, July 14, 2006


Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2996.

[Last modified July 20, 2006, 18:00:07]