the second day of the defense summit<\/a> hosted by McCormick at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, the Democratic governor and Republican senator both said Pennsylvania can become a national leader in defense manufacturing and innovation.<\/p>\n\u201cDefense is critical to the future growth of this commonwealth. And we can build on that wonderful heritage as we think about how to create more jobs, more prosperity and more importantly more national security,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n
McCormick said the country must respond quickly to rapid advances in artificial intelligence and automation through partnerships among government, industry and higher education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis moment requires more,\u201d he said. \u201cIt requires industry,\u202facademia\u202fand congress to step up further.\u201d<\/p>\n
He compared the country\u2019s defense system to a symphony, saying success depends on every sector working together.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach group plays a different part. But the music only works when they play well and play together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This is the second summit McCormick has hosted. He led one last summer in Pittsburgh on artificial intelligence and energy. Shapiro also spoke at that one.<\/p>\n
The two-day summit brought thousands of industry leaders, government officials and education professionals together at the US Army War College in Carlisle to discuss ways to move the country\u2019s defense system forward.<\/p>\n
Shapiro joined McCormick for a panel Wednesday titled \u201cPennsylvania: Freedom\u2019s Forge.\u201d The discussion was moderated by Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi and also included Michael Coulter, president and CEO of Hanwha Defense USA, and Danny Deep, president of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems.<\/p>\n
Deep said demand created by Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine forced manufacturers to dramatically increase production.<\/p>\n
The factory in Scranton employs 2,200 people and dramatically expanded operations when the Russia-Ukraine war began.<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine consumed five years of our capacity\u2026 in less than six and a half months,\u201d Deep said. \u201cSo we had to scale up.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said investments from the federal and state governments helped the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant increase production from about 14,000 artillery rounds per month to roughly 50,000.<\/p>\n
Workforce and education<\/p>\n
Coulter says his company is working with partners to reimagine the workforce of the future. He also said a technology-based workforce is not a threat,<\/p>\n
\u201cThe workforce of the future is very heavily automated,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople mistake automation and robotics with lack of jobs or replacing jobs. I can tell you in our shipyard in Korea we have 30,000 workers and it is very heavily automated.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCormick said Pennsylvania\u2019s universities and private sector are already producing pioneering research.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have that cutting edge expertise here,\u201d McCormick said. \u201cWe have to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro noted recent increases in funding for technical education, but expressed a desire to better connect the research happening at universities like Penn State as the need grows more immediate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have got to realize that China is innovating at a rate far quicker than the United States is right now,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the ways we can speed that process up is the force multiplier of our allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro took a slight swipe at the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get a little bit concerned when our administration pokes the finger in the eye of our allies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick agree on the need to expand Pennsylvania\u2019s role in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-244291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}