Unveiling a multi-pronged approach at a DaytonDefense luncheon, coalition executives hit on familiar and new themes, pledging to work with legislators in Washington and Columbus to protect the base, draw new defense-industry jobs to the Miami Valley and — taking a cue from the Columbus area’s recent success in attracting Intel — prepare sites for industrial development in and around Dayton.
“What’s good for Dayton is good for Ohio, and what’s good for Ohio is good for Dayton,” said Elaine Bryant, the coalition’s executive vice president for aerospace and defense.
The renewed push to defend the base comes at a time of a new European war. U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said while Russia will likely win the first battles of its latest invasion into Ukraine, it’s crucial that the world remain united against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“This is not working out for the Russians,” Turner said, relaying what he called his “impressions” from intelligence briefings in recent days.
Turner had high praise for a key Wright-Patterson mission, the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), the global workforce giving warfighters and their leaders information they need.
Construction crews are on the base now, building a new $182 million headquarters for NASIC.
“Their work is being done to give us, as we have always said, advantages on the battlefields,” said Turner, who is also a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Bryant, with Jeff Hoagland, the coalition’s president and chief executive, reiterated well-tested methods of advocating for the base, continuing with the coalition’s annual springtime “fly-ins” to Washington, D.C., and pushing for state legislation that makes Ohio more “military friendly.”
But a coalition spokeswoman also said Friday that her organization and DaytonDefense are formalizing an agreement that would tie the two organizations together.
“DaytonDefense members have been asked to vote on a proposed agreement to transfer the DaytonDefense brand and operations to the Dayton Development Coalition,” said Shannon Joyce Neal, the coalition’s vice president of strategic communications. “With this agreement, the DaytonDefense mission and programs would become a part of the Dayton Development Coalition, expanding their focus and emphasis on the many businesses in Dayton that are a part of the defense industrial base.”
DaytonDefense will continue to exist in name and brand, and the DaytonDefense name will still be used for events and collaboration, she said.
“However, the legal entity DaytonDefense will formally dissolve as a registered federal and state organization,” Neal also said.
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