A 25-person tech company in Manchester, Vibrac Precision Test Systems, anticipates explosive growth as the United States and Europe move to expand their stockpiles of Patriot defense missiles, the head of the company said Friday.
Vibrac produces a product that calibrates the ball bearings used in the missiles, whose stockpiles are being depleted because of wars in Ukraine and Iran. Vibrac’s calibration is the last step on the Patriot before it is deployed, said Tom Rogers, the chief executive and founder of Vibrac.
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen listens as UNH Vice President Dr. Jennifer Miksis-Olds speaks about her participation in the Farnborough International Airshow during a roundtable meeting Friday. To Shaheen’s right is Tom Rogers, founder and chief-executive of Vibrac Precision Test Systems. (Photo by Mark Hayward)
Both the Pentagon and European Union want to order 2,000 of the missiles per year, meaning that Vibrac expects orders “north of $100 million” over four years, Rogers told NH Business Review.
“That creates a whole new world of challenges we’re going to have to deal with,” Rogers said of his company, which is located near the Manchester airport.
Rogers spoke during a roundtable of New Hampshire aerospace industry leaders who attended the Farnborough Air Show in mid-July.
Located outside London, the biannual exhibition features some 1,700 aerospace and defense companies and draws 100,000 participants. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, led the roundtable.
This year’s event was the first to highlight the coordination between New Hampshire industry, state government and the state university system, said Randy Makee, executive director of the New Hampshire Aerospace & Defense Consortium.
The New Hampshire presence included a video produced by LMTLSS Media that highlighted the concentration of the aerospace industry in the Granite State.
TechNH, a plastic injection molding company in Merrimack, hosted the roundtable.
During the events, aerospace business leaders brandished the term “War Department,” the Trump administration’s revision of the traditional label “Department of Defense.”
They praised the connections they made at Farnborough, either with Pentagon insiders, industry giants such as BAE Systems or up and coming companies such as Space X.
“It could be game-changing for our business,” said Matt Zabko, chief-executive of Laconia-based Bond Optics, who had a chance to speak to a Space X representative..
And they said their off-shore counterparts faced similar challenges in workforce growth, development and retention.
“We’re getting a lot of pressure from our aerospace customers. They want to ramp up; they want to grow,” said Ryan Nay, senior manager at New Hampshire Ball Bearings.
But the company’s inability to find manufacturing workers in rural Peterborough hampers the company’s ability to grow, and commercial work may have to take a backseat to military contracts, he said.
With Shaheen listening, the companies had a chance to brag about their products.
Jon Beam leads Rogue Space Systems Corporation. The 25-person Laconia company sells equipment used for in-space testing. But the company is preparing for in-space manufacturing and is devising an autonomous, in-space mission control center for satellites.
Shaheen said autonomous systems represent the future for the defense industry.
“But there are real concerns about (artificial intelligence) and how AI operates, and I don’t think we’ve answered those questions yet,” Shaheen told NH Business Review.
The biggest story to tell was Vibrac. Rogers said he attended a NATO conference in Turkey before the Farnborough show.
The European Union is finally embracing the Patriot missile after realizing their 100-mph drones cannot intercept 8,000-mph ballistic missiles, Rogers said.
He said the Patriot has improved its accuracy from 28% to 97%, and Marine Lt. Gen. Greg Masiello, who until recently handled procurement for the Pentagon, told Rogers he will help Vibrac with whatever it needs.
“‘I hope you understand how many lives you saved with your technology,’” Rogers said, quoting Masiello.
In his interview with NH Business Review, Rogers said Vibrac has no competitors, and their product is “one thousand times better than the next best option.”
The New Hampshire participation in Farnborough was funded by a State Trade Expansion Program grant, a U.S. Small Business Administration program that Shaheen helped get into law.
The grant paid about $40,000 for exhibition space, $70,000 for the New Hampshire booth construction and lodging for one representative per company.
A 25-person tech company in Manchester, Vibrac Precision Test Systems, anticipates explosive growth as the United States and Europe move to expand their stockpiles of Patriot defense missiles.
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