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Southern Maryland Navy Alliance highlights Pax River’s global flight-test role, urges local aerospace priorities
Summary
At a meeting of the St. Mary's County Economic Development Commission, Southern Maryland Navy Alliance leaders described Pax River as a global flight-test hub and urged local planning, new facilities and workforce development to capture incoming defense and aerospace investment.
Dale Moore, president of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance and chairman of the Maryland Aerospace and Technology Commission, told the Economic Development Commission that Naval Air Station Patuxent River (Pax River) is “the busiest flight test center in the world,” supporting tens of thousands of flight-test hours and thousands of jobs connected to naval aviation.
Moore said Pax River’s scale includes roughly 2,500 square miles of restricted airspace and tens of thousands of additional available airspace, and he highlighted large programs and upgrades—such as sixth-generation fighter activity, the MQ‑25 unmanned refueling platform and F‑35 Block 4 testing—that will generate billions in contracting and local economic activity. “It is an economic engine for the state,” Moore said, noting NAVAIR’s roughly $60 billion annual budget and the base’s broad technology ecosystem.
Moore said the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance (a nonprofit advocacy group formed during the BRAC process in the 1990s) and the Maryland Aerospace and Technology Commission aim to raise state and federal awareness of those assets, push for new test facilities (an additional anechoic chamber and a replacement catapult among priorities), and strengthen workforce development and industry connections. Jim Bolen, introduced by Moore as executive vice president of the alliance, said the alliance’s role is to advocate for funding and capabilities that support Pax River and the regional aerospace cluster.
Commissioners asked how nontraditional contractors and small businesses can participate in the base ecosystem. Moore and Bolen pointed to Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs, industry days, a naval air systems consortium using other transactional authorities, and a base small-business roundtable as channels to bring in new firms. Rick Tarr, who identified himself as the director of the tech transfer office and an ex officio member representing NAVAIR, also described outreach efforts to connect local academia and industry to base needs.
Moore closed by describing a multi‑county strategy of aerospace and technology zones to knit Maryland assets together and by urging coordinated communications and workforce planning so Southern Maryland can capture the ripple benefits of major defense programs.
The presentation was followed by questions from commissioners; no formal action was taken on the presentation itself.
