AIA Concerned By Future Shortage of Qualified American Aerospace Workers

The US aerospace industry forms the core of America’s native military-industrial capacity, and is a potent contributor to American trade balances and economic competitiveness. At the moment, however, the US aerospace industry has thousands of vacancies; and AIA’s statistics show almost 60% of its workforce at age 45 or older in 2007. Other surveys report that between 13%-27% of that workforce will be qualified for retirement by the end of 2008, and several AIA member firms report that within 10 years, fully half of their current workforce will be retirement-eligible.

The news does not improve on the intake end. Overall, just 5% of bachelor’s degrees in the USA are engineering related, compared to 20% in Asia. American institutions award about 70,000 B.Eng degrees per year, including many engineering fields not related to aerospace. That figure rises to about 1/3 of bachelor’s degrees if science degrees are included, but many asian countries are well over 50% if those disciplines are aggregated. Worse, more than 50% of the engineering Ph.Ds awarded in the USA go to foreign nationals, many of whom are not eligible for US security clearances.

That may have something to do with the fact that U.S. 4th-graders score well against international competition in math and science, but fall to the bottom by 12th grade. The US Department of Education also reports an disquieting proportion of U.S. middle school students (grades 7-9, a critical inflection point) taught by educators who had no major or certification in mathematics (68.5%) or science (57.2%).

These trends alarm the American Aerospace Industries Association. Its recent “Launch into Aerospace” initiative offers both an analysis of the current situation and its implications for future competitiveness, and a commitment from AIA member companies to an agenda and a set of corporate actions designed to strengthen America’s future STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) dependent workforce. A companion web site has been set up to help people take the required steps toward aerospace careers. As a next step, AIA is developing a second workforce report that will take a closer look at the issue and offer more details regarding industry commitments and social policy recommendations. AIA release | AIA Sept 2008 report [PDF] | LaunchIntoAerospace.org

M1203 NLOS-C: Future Combat Systems’ Howitzer

NLOS-C CTD, Yuma

The USA’s $160+ billion Future Combat Systems faced a mild restructuring in February 2007, and in July 2007, work began on Phase 1 spinouts to the active force. In order to speed replacement of the M109 mobile howitzers, some members of Congress had been pushing to speed up fielding of the M1203 NLOS-C 155mm mobile howitzer as a replacement for the USA’s aging M109s, even if this meant breaking Future Combat Systems’ unitary acquisition model by making NLOS-C a separate program. That didn’t happen, thanks in part to FCS critic Senator McCain’s [R-AZ] interesting intervention, but the message was clear.

Unfortunately, even NLOS-C will break the C-130’s 20-ton cargo weight limit by a considerable margin (estimate: 27 tons, which works well in an Airbus A400M but not the C-130J Hercules). As such, FCS’ armored vehicle core is unlikely to ever deliver its most important touted benefit: deployability. On the other hand, NLOS-C does offer new and fully modern mobile howitzers, an aim that has clear Congressional support. As such, the FCS program is making the NLOS-C the lead example for FCS’ tracked Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) family.

This will be DID’s Spotlight article covering the NLOS-C sub-program, from its core platform and fit within Future Combat Systems, to its program and contracts, to additional research materials. The program was canceled in 2009, but elements of its technologies will survive elsewhere…

• The XM1203 NLOS-C
  
• NLOS-C: The Program [new]
  
• NLOS-C: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
  
• Additional Readings & Sources