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Defense Contractor Complex
Yuma Airport's Defense Contractor Complex (DCC) located at Yuma International Airport is America's newest and most promising defense aviation park. Launched in January 2009, the 120 acre park located at the Yuma International Airport, just 15 miles south of the Yuma Proving Ground, targets and supports Defense Contractors from Boeing to General Electric. Defense Contractors who are looking for a permanent presence will be pleased to see that the Yuma community has home-grown talent who offer an exciting range of defense-based expertise including engineering, servicing, research & development. The Defense Contractor Complex provides a center for completing the secure and technological based activities required by contractors.
Yuma International Airport is co-located with Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. No other airport in the world has such a close working relationship with the military industry.
Marine Corps Air Station
MCAS Yuma is one of the Marine Corps' premier aviation training bases. It is also the busiest air station in the Marine Corps and the third busiest in the naval service. With access to 2.8 million acres of bombing and aviation training ranges and superb flying weather, MCAS Yuma supports 80 percent of the Corps' air-to-ground aviation training. Each year, the air station hosts numerous units and aircraft from U.S. and NATO forces. Its primary mission is to support aerial weapons training for the Atlantic and Pacific Fleet Marine Forces and Navy, and to serve as a base of operations for Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1, and Third MAW units, to include Marine Aircraft Group-13. It is also one of the largest single contributors to the economy of Yuma County
Joint Strike Fighter Program
The Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JFS) is the future of Marine Corps aviation. This program will provide next generation aircraft to the Marine Corps aviation on the West Coast and integrate F35B squadrons into existing Marine Corps command and organizational structure. This would base and operated a total of 12 F-35B (up to 182 aircraft) squadrons in the 3rd and 4th Marine Air Wings (MAW) at both MCAS Yuma and MCAS Miramar.
The new aircraft would replace up to 206 aging aircraft:
- 80 AV-8B Harriers from MCAS Yuma
- 126 F/A-18A/C/D/ Hornets from MCAS Miramar
- 7 active-duty F/A-18 A/C/D squadrons
- Up to 42 VMFAT-101 training squadron
MCAS Yuma is preparing to receive the new short takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35 Lighting II. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multirole aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air defense missions.
A significant mix of contractors and sub-contractors in the F-35 manufacturing process are all expected to have either a permanent or temporary presence at Yuma International Airport's Defense Contractor Complex during the life cycle of the F-35 system.
NASA Locates in Yuma
NASA leased the newly completed defense contractor's hangar at Yuma International Airport to base its testing of parachutes for the newest generation of space travel launch craft. The NASA team will be developing the Orion parachute system, used to bring astronauts back to earth. Jacobs Technology will be working with the NASA team throughout the project. Jacobs Technology is the advanced technology division of Jacobs Engineering, one of the nation's largest engineering and technical services-only companies. In addition to NASA, their clients include the Department of Defense, other government agencies and many advanced technology government contracting firms such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Rolls-Royce.
The 15,000-square-foot state-of-the-art hangar was built by local contractor LoCoco-Pilkington Construction at a cost of approximately $1.7 million. The hangar is named in honor of Greg "Pappy" Boyington, a World War II aviation hero and commander of the famed Black Sheep Squadron that still operates at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.
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Why Yuma for Aerospace and Defense Testing?
Some of the major advantages for business in Yuma:
- Quick Access to Key Markets
- Clean desert air, low humidity, 350 sunny days every year
- A 13,300' runway with no landing fees for government and defense contractors
- Abundant labor with no union presence
- Competitive wage rates
- 2000 square miles of restricted airspace
- Longest Overland artillery range (40 miles)
Aerospace and Defense Testing
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Wage Comparison (partial list) Aerospace and Defense Testing
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Contractors Operating at Yuma Proving Ground and Marine Corps Air Station
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Yuma Proving Ground
Yuma Proving Ground is one of the largest military installations in the world. YPG is situated in western Yuma County and southwestern La Paz County approximately 30 miles (north-east of the city of Yuma, the proving ground is used for testing military equipment and encompasses 1,307.8 square miles in the northwestern Sonoran Desert.
Munitions and artillery systems are tested in an area almost completely removed from urban encroachment and noise concerns. Restricted airspace amounts to over 2,000 square miles. Nearly 3000 people, mostly civilian, work at the proving ground. Yuma Proving Ground is the largest single employer of civilians in the county with a total economic impact of over $430 million annually.
Yuma Proving Ground features:
- The longest overland artillery range (40 miles) in the nation,
- The most highly instrumented helicopter armament test range in the Department of Defense
- Over 200 miles of improved road courses for testing tracked and wheeled military vehicles
- Over 600 miles of fiber-optic cable linking test locations
- The most modern mine and demolitions test facility in the western hemisphere
- Six airfields servicing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft conducting personnel and cargo parachute drops
- One of the premiere test and evaluation sites for improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
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Nearly all long range artillery testing for U.S. ground forces
General Motors Locates at YPG
The General Motors Desert Proving Ground - Yuma was officially opened at the proving ground in late July 2009. The new facility is a partnership between General Motors and the Army that allows Army automotive testers at the proving ground to test Army wheeled vehicles at the General Motors facility on a year-round basis. It is estimated that the track can be used to test about 80 percent of the Army's wheeled vehicle fleet.
An Enhanced Use Lease (EUL) process managed by the Army Corps of Engineers provided the means to establish the joint use hot weather test center. This process allows the Army to transfer non-excess land to private industry in exchange for long term benefits. To date, the Army Corps of Engineers oversees 55 active and proposed EUL projects at 56 installations around the country.
