By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

At first glance, they could be cargo containers anywhere in the general vicinity of the Port of Charleston.

But upon closer inspection, it’s clear that these aren’t just any containers waiting to be whisked off to market.

Sandy-colored and sitting snug against a radar tower at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in North Charleston, they are, in fact, sophisticated air traffic and communications control facilities bound for the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“These are an example of how a good idea created in collaboration with our Charleston contractors keeps bearing fruit for all concerned,” said F. Allen Nusom, the senior engineer on the project.

For the U.S. Air Force central command, SPAWAR Charleston’s idea of turning cargo crates into self-contained command facilities gave it the means to quickly install a turnkey air traffic control operation anywhere.

Through SPAWAR’s regional contractors, the project also represented a $25 million investment in the Charleston economy, Nusom said.

What’s more, orders for additional containerized facilities are expected to funnel an additional $25 million into the local economy in 2006, he said.

Philip Braswell, who oversees projects at SPAWAR’s air traffic control center, said the idea of turning cargo containers into working facilities grew out of a commitment to help the military upgrade its air traffic control facilities throughout the United States.

The National Airspace Modification Program, as the ongoing project is known, is essentially an effort to bring all air traffic control facilities at domestic military bases into the digital age.

The challenge is replacing existing equipment without shutting down a facility or endangering military pilots or the general public.

Obviously, an interim air traffic control facility was needed, but the engineers took the notion a step further.

“Instead of simply shipping the facility components in cargo containers, why don’t we build the interim facilities inside them and then simply, more or less, plug them into place,” Braswell said.

The next call was to Charleston Marine Container Inc., which builds specialty container systems in its Charleston facility for both military and commercial uses.

Three other contractors, each with facilities in North Charleston and an expertise in a specific area of aviation communication and technology—ARINC Systems Engineering LLC, SERCO Inc. and Milcom Systems—then got down to the work of turning what was essentially a large, highly durable box into a high-tech workspace.

The National Airspace Modification Program had already been an unqualified success for several years when Nusom and his engineering team came to call.

“We needed a turnkey operation that was not only reliable, but could also stand up to the weather extremes of Iraq and Afghanistan,” Nusom said.

The containerized facilities, now waiting to be loaded onto a C-17 transport at Shaw Air Force Base and sent on their way, will be used to ensure military aircraft maintain a safe separation from each other as they navigate hostile skies.

Aside from their width—one facility is two containers wide, while the other is three wide—both include air traffic controller work stations, massive servers for converting radar data from analog to digital and one or more additional sets of the same equipment.

Massive air conditioning units are also included to protect controllers from the desert heat.

“The nice thing about much of the equipment used in this project is that it’s had other military applications,” Braswell said. “Anytime you can overhaul and reinvent something, you save the taxpayer money.”

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

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