Page 24 - AAA SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2022 Online Magazine

27,000 people working, and Tech Ops – Tulsa, American Airlines’ grant program,” says Camp. “During the
largest Base Maintenance facility, are in Oklahoma. Tinker’s Air pandemic, we also launched a supply chain
Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) manages more than 500 U.S. program to help businesses in the aerospace
Air Force aircraft while Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex and defence supply chain. This allows com-
(OC-ALC) is the largest MRO facility for the U.S. Department of panies in the sector to easily connect and
Defense. American Airlines has about 6.500 people working in conduct business with large defence con-
Tulsa, where nearly half of the airline’s overall maintenance work tractors and the DOD. It has also helped
is conducted. Almost all the major OEMs, including Lockheed companies in the state to reduce their reli-
Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Pratt & Whitney have ance on the global supply chain. Of the over
a presence around the Tinker Air Force Base. 1,100 aerospace and defence entities in the
state, about 400-500 are on the platform.”
Camp, a licensed aircraft mechanic, an engineer, and a pilot,
started his career as an engineer mechanic in the U.S. Air Force. Winning Them Over
“I have worked with major aerospace companies, including GE
Aviation and Textron,” he says. “I understand the business. My The state has been successful in attracting
team and I stay very close and are in constant to with companies many international companies, says Camp.
already in Oklahoma. We are focused not just on recruiting very “We recruited TAT Technologies, a company
innovative startups but also those that are more established. In in Israel; they moved their entire operations
addition to having a very pro-business Governor, we also have to Tulsa. Many international companies are
very affordable labor, affordable energy, and a lot of land.” interested in the clean and inexpensive

Braving the Pandemic energy that we can provide. In fact, we are
one of one or two states in the nation where a
company can come to in and use 100 % clean
The pandemic did not have much of an impact on the state’s energy. We also have the cheapest energy in
aerospace sector, says Camp. “We did face a few challenges the entire nation.”
when it comes to the workforce returning to work after the pan-
demic, but one of the things that made it easier for us is that we Camp is confident that Oklahoma will con-
really never stopped working as a state. We never officially shut tinue to attract aerospace and defence
down; we slowed down for about four weeks and then we went companies, both international and domes-
right back to work. We were already producing about US$11.1 tic. “I think people just don’t know about
billion in Department of Defense (DOD) contracts; we managed Oklahoma enough. When I get an aerospace
to increase that by US$632 million over the last two years” and defence company to visit the state, I win
As a way to extend support to businesses during the pandemic, 93.7 per cent of the time. They are very sur-
prised to see what we have to offer. Over the
the state introduced the Oklahoma innovation expansion pro- last three years, we have had 31 new aero-
gram that provided grants to companies that were looking to space and defense companies move to the
expand. “In the aerospace and defence sector, we had several state. That resulted in almost a billion dollars
companies that applied to diversity their business. The response in capital investment, and about 6500 jobs
was so good that we have decided to keep it as a permanent
with an average wage of $76,000. We have
a couple of 200-300-employee companies
interested in coming into Oklahoma; one of
them is from UK while the other is US-based.
It is looking very favorable.”
Recruiting companies involved in additive
manufacturing and unmanned aerial systems
(UAS) remains a priority for Camp. “I believe
there is a lot of potential in these two areas.
We have over 44,000 acres of UAS test space
in the state. One of the major universities in
the state has an unmanned system research
institute. It is the only place in the world where
you can get an unmanned systems develop-
ment PhD. We also have an engineering
program for additive manufacturing and a
couple of additive manufacturing centers.
We are focused on developing and growing
the additive manufacturing ecosystem in the
state.”

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