announced $90 billion in AI- and energy-related investments<\/a> in Pittsburgh last July. McCormick followed that up this year with news of nearly $10 billion in defense-related investments that he said will support more than 4,000 jobs across the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cPennsylvania has powered American defense since the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps were founded in Philadelphia in 1775. That legacy carried us through the Arsenal of Democracy in World War II, and it’s carrying us today through advanced manufacturing, robotics, AI, and space,\u201d McCormick said in a statement announcing the investments. \u201cPresident Trump has laid out a bold vision for American strength, and Pennsylvania is proving it can deliver, bringing the innovation, the workforce, and the will to build it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Philadelphia, Rhoads Industries and General Dynamics will benefit from a 10-year, $2.5 billion strategic agreement aimed at boosting advanced manufacturing and shipbuilding for U.S. Navy submarine construction at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The agreement will reportedly support 1,350 jobs through 2035. Additionally, Hanwha Group is receiving new ship orders from the Department of Transportation\u2019s Maritime Administration valued at $1.5 billion, which will result in more than 2,000 jobs. JP Morgan Chase also committed close to $25 million to bolster shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing in Philadelphia \u2013 an investment that will create 450 permanent jobs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Pittsburgh, Eos Energy Enterprises was awarded a Golden Dome for America contract to integrate long-duration energy storage, while Qintel, a cyber intelligence company, announced an $84 million contract with U.S. Cyber Command to build on its work with U.S. government agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In other parts of the state, Mack Defense in Allentown will receive a U.S. Army order for 115 heavy dump trucks for the Army National Guard; and Kratos Defense in York announced plans to open a 167,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility in York and to purchase new equipment totaling $7 million. In the state\u2019s northwest corner, Sphere Brake Defense in Erie will receive a $4.5 million U.S. Marine Corps contract for sphere brake kits for the Marine Corps\u2019 amphibious combat vehicle fleet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania universities will also benefit, with Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University all announcing new agreements and initiatives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upon his arrival at the U.S. Army War College, Trump celebrated the investments, calling Pennsylvania a \u201chot place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPennsylvania workers will build the ships, submarines, trucks, weapons and industries that will ensure America remains the strongest and most powerful nation in the history of the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump said the investments announced Wednesday will bring good things to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, among other locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be building two massive national security multi-mission vessels at the beautiful and historic Philadelphia shipyard,\u201d he said. \u201cEos in Pittsburgh just agreed to a multimillion-dollar partnership with the Department of War to build energy storage technology in support of our Golden Dome missile defense system. We\u2019re building a Golden Dome over our country \u2013 and it\u2019s going to be a very effective one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania\u2019s role in national defense<\/p>\n
One of the many discussions held throughout the two-day event focused on Pennsylvania\u2019s role in defense and national security. In a panel discussion led by Pennsylvania State University President Neeli Bendapudi, McCormick joined forces with Gov. Josh Shapiro, Hanwha Defense USA President and CEO Michael Coulter and General Dynamics President Danny Deep to examine Pennsylvania\u2019s contributions to the defense landscape.<\/p>\n
McCormick noted that Pennsylvania is home to 9,000 defense-related companies that employ nearly 200,000 people. \u201cPennsylvania has always been at the center of our national defense,\u201d the senator said. \u201cThe Carlisle arsenal here supported George Washington\u2019s army. The hallowed fields of Gettysburg are where America, in many ways, went through its toughest chapter \u2026 We\u2019re entering a new phase of enormous innovation in defense, and Pennsylvania should be, and in many ways is, the point of the spear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 190,000 employees, we have 9,000 defense-related companies, but even as important as that is, we also are on the cutting edge of innovation: drones, AI, autonomy, robots,\u201d McCormick added. \u201cThat\u2019s where the future is headed in terms of what our military capabilities need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro, who last year attended McCormick\u2019s AI summit in Pittsburgh, said innovation in AI and technology are directly tied to the growth of the defense sector in Pennsylvania \u2013 and the health of the commonwealth\u2019s economy as a whole. In response to a question from Bendapudi, Shapiro said that continued collaboration between academia, the defense sector and AI and tech companies is crucial.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we are uniquely poised to grow the defense industrial base, in part because of you and leaders like you in academia, in part because of some of our traditional defense companies, but in large measure also because of a lot of what we talked about last year \u2013 our AI companies, our tech companies,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cFiguring out how to bring all of that together is going to make our nation more secure, make Pennsylvania more prosperous, and continue to have us as a leader in this space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coulter said that Philadelphia has long been home to shipbuilding in the United States, and that Hanwha has invested more than $200 million into its Philadelphia operations \u2013 and doubled its workforce \u2013 in an effort to \u201cmake shipbuilding great again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deep added that General Dynamics, which produces ammunition at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, has more than 2,200 employees across eight operations in the commonwealth. He said the plant increased its artillery production from 14,000 to 50,000 rounds per month in the wake of the war in Ukraine. That was made possible thanks to partnerships between the public and private sectors.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, the commonwealth also earned praise from Jon Gray, the president and COO of Blackstone Group, who lauded the state\u2019s efforts to speed up permitting for various projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a state that works. This is a state where people say, on a bipartisan basis, we want to see things get done, get built \u2013 and that\u2019s why you’re seeing so much economic activity,\u201d Gray said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Military and intelligence leaders talk evolving nature of warfare<\/p>\n
Outside of the auditorium that hosted the day\u2019s discussions on defense, more than 100 exhibitors \u2013 ranging from defense contractors and universities to weapons and technology manufacturers \u2013 lined the trade show area inside the U.S. Army War College. The participants put on full display the evolving nature of warfare and defense, with drones, robots and ammunition a common sight throughout the facility.<\/p>\n
That message was echoed by the nation\u2019s top military and intelligence officials, including Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWarfare is no longer confined to traditional domains,\u201d Caine said during his keynote address on the summit\u2019s first day. \u201cIt now stretches literally from the seabed to cislunar space, and soon, beyond. We\u2019re fighting and competing in the cognitive space, the physical space, the cyberspace, and the information space, and it ranges from feeds on our phones to satellites and everything else \u2013 all at the same time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, the very character of war is changing, driven by unprecedented complexity and technological acceleration in areas like AI, quantum autonomy and drones,\u201d Caine added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ratcliffe, who served as the U.S. director of national intelligence during Trump\u2019s first term, said that U.S. intelligence agencies are grappling with the same types of challenges as their military counterparts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CIA\u2019s future as an intelligence service \u2013 and, I would say more broadly, our future as a nation \u2013 depends on the CIA\u2019s ability to adopt, adapt and deploy emerging technologies, both offensively and defensively, better than our adversaries,\u201d he said, \u201cto continue to give our policymakers the strategic advantage that they need for our continued success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick convened leaders from across the public and private sectors at the U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7097,3145,34,2156,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-244336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-congress","tag-dave-mccormick","tag-donald-trump","tag-news-politics","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244336","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=244336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}