By DAVID SEDORE and WILLIAM M. HARTNETT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

LANTANA - Carlos Cavanagh has a professional interest in the war in Iraq.

His company, Control Logistics of Lantana, makes most of the windows used on Army helicopters.

“When they land and throw up all that sand, I wonder how long my work is going to last,” Cavanagh says.

Control Logistics is one of more than 100 companies in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties that performed work for the U.S. Department of Defense during the federal government’s 2001-02 budget year. Their take: $535 million.

The vast majority of that - about $496 million - went to United Technologies Corp., whose Sikorsky and Pratt & Whitney subsidiaries operate in northwestern Palm Beach County. Most of their defense work, however, has shifted north to the parent’s Connecticut headquarters as part of an efficiency move two years ago.

The others are a smattering of companies that make parts, do research, provide food and lodging, maintain airplanes and boats or provide sundry services, everything from pest control (Tomassello Inc.) to guard services (Wackenhut Corp.).

For some, defense work is their lifeblood. For others, it’s a sideline that brings in a little extra income to bolster the regular revenue stream.

Whether the war in Iraq, which appears to be waning, will prove a bonanza for any of them is uncertain at this point.

“We haven’t seen a spike in orders,” Cavanagh says. “They must have done their planning correctly.”

Patten Inflatables of Lake Worth says about 70 percent of its business is defense-related. “We are the major supplier of life rafts for all military aircraft,” said Stephen Patten, who runs the business with his brother, Robert.

Stephen Patten recently completed a two-year contract to provide the Air Force with 11,000 one-man inflatable rafts.

The company, which employs about 141, is the third-largest defense contractor in the region, handling nearly $3 million in sales with the department during the past year. It’s also one of the oldest. Founder Fred Patten, who developed the inflatable life raft for aviators before World War II, moved his company to Lake Worth from Massachusetts in the 1950s. Fred Patten, at 91, is still active in the business.

So far, Stephen Patten hasn’t seen any of the rafts in use during the war.

The aptly named Predator Systems of Boca Raton handled about $135,000 worth of work for the Defense Department in 2002, including a $25,000 contract to make valves for the M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer - a cannon built onto a tank-like vehicle.

Predator Systems parts can be found in the Abrams M1A tank, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the F-16 fighter jet and other weapons.

For Abel Unlimited, a distributor in West Palm Beach, defense contracting represents an occasional opportunity. It sold the Defense Department $38,000 worth of gloves.

“We try to do any work we can,” President Marvin Maltz says.

Delray Beach-based Office Depot Inc. sold $88,000 worth of furniture and supplies to the Defense Department - hardly a staggering number for the company, which generated about $12 billion in sales worldwide last year.

“It’s just one of many channels the company has,” says Office Depot spokesman Brian Levine. “It’s not really a big deal.”

West Palm Beach-based Slim-Fast Foods sells its diet products through base commissaries, the military versions of supermarkets. Defense Department revenue for the company, owned by Dutch giant Unilever, totaled $1.4 million.

Sportexe, a Lake Worth-based U.S. subsidiary of Canada’s Triexe Management, sold about $80,000 worth of recreational goods, including playground equipment.

Defense business is as old as the republic itself. Patriot and entrepreneur Paul Revere made gunpowder and cannons for the Continental Army. He also sold copper to the fledgling Navy.

E.I. du Pont began his family’s chemical empire in 1802 by opening a gunpowder mill on the banks of the Brandywine River in Delaware. By the War of 1812, du Pont became the leading supplier of gunpowder to the United States.

Two hundred years later, defense still means opportunity for the enterprising business executive.

The Air Force paid Dean Baldwin Painting, based in West Palm Beach, about $2.4 million to strip and paint its C-130 cargo planes at a company facility in Roswell, N.M. The contract is a five-year deal that calls for Dean Baldwin to handle work that the Air Force’s maintenance depot at Ogden, Utah, can’t handle.

The deal has helped the company grow into a $9 million company that employs 180, including six locally.

“This contract was a small-business set-aside,” Chief Executive Officer Barbara Baldwin says. “It created quite a few extra jobs. It sure helped us stabilize our business.”

The war could bring her more business, considering all the use and abuse the planes are getting in Iraq’s sandy environs, Baldwin says.

Worldwide, the Defense Department spent $168.4 billion on contracts in the 2002 budget year. Domestically, it spent $158 billion. Those numbers include contracts with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Among the states, Florida ranked fourth, handling $6.7 billion worth of contracts in 2002, trailing California ($21 billion), Virginia ($17.8 billion) and Texas ($13.2 billion). Those numbers exclude contracts with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Lockheed Martin was Florida’s largest contractor, taking in $973 million, including about $800,000 for work performed at its Perry Technologies subsidiary in Riviera Beach.

Though Lockheed historically is better known for developing airplanes - it made the P-38 Lightning fighter in World War II - its work at Perry is underwater. It builds and tests a device called the remote mine hunter vehicle as part of a $130 million Navy contract.

The device will handle underwater surveillance, including finding mines and submarines, Lockheed spokesman Fred Henney said. Eventually, it could be developed into a weapon system.

The mine hunter system will be deployed on five destroyers, the first of which will be the USS Pinckney, scheduled to be commissioned next year. The vehicles will be assembled in Riviera Beach using parts made by a variety of contractors, including Raytheon and Cummins.

“Hopefully, we will be able to get it on ship and out to sea next year,” Henney said.

The future for United Technologies is less bright, as far as local defense work is concerned. Pratt’s Palm Beach County facility will do some jet engine testing along with its civilian work.

Sikorsky will do some military flight testing locally, including the Comanche, the Army’s first stealth helicopter, “but it is very small,” spokeswoman Sheena Steiner says.

CONTRACTS BIG AND SMALL
The bulk of the $535 million that area defense contractors took in during fiscal year 2001-02 - about $496 million - went to United Technologies Corp.’s Sikorsky and Pratt & Whitney units. The remainder of the top 10, who do everything from making parts to providing food and lodging - accounted for about $18 million.

United Technologies - $496.3 million
Turbocombustor Technology - $4.1 million
Patten Co. - $3.0 million
Dean Baldwin Painting - $2.4 million
Port Consolidated - $1.6 million
Galaxy Aviation of Palm Beach - $1.6 million
Control Logistics - $1.6 million
Slim-Fast Foods Co. - $1.4 million
Graflex - $1.3 million
Florida Atlantic University - $910,000

NATION’S TOP SHARE OF DEFENSE DOLLARS …
Last year the Department of Defense spent about $158 billion in the United States on contracts. These states received the largest share during the 2001-2002 fiscal year.

1. California - $21.0 billion
2. Virginia - $17.8 billion
3. Texas - $13.2 billion
4. Florida - $6.7 billion
5. Arizona - $6.6 billion
6. Maryland - $6.3 billion
7. Connecticut - $5.6 billion
8. Missouri - $5.5 billion
9. Georgia - $5.5 billion
10. Massachusetts - $4.8 billion

… AND FLORIDA’S SHARE OF CONTRACT SPENDING
Last year the Department of Defense spent about $6.7 billion in Florida on contracts for work performed in all but three counties. Here’s the top 10 counties’ share of the defense dollar for the 2002 fiscal year.

1. Orange - $1.90 billion
2. Brevard - $1.08 billion
3. Pinellas - $657 million
4. Okaloosa - $649 million
5. Palm Beach - $519 million
6. Duval - $467 million
7. Hillsborough - $304 million
8. Miami-Dade - $178 million
9. Volusia - $144 million
10. Escambia - $128 million
All others - $670 million

Source: Post analysis of federal data

Copyright 2003 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
April 21, 2003 Monday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: INSIDE LOCAL BUSINESS, Pg. 1D
LENGTH: 1542 words