Defense shift plays to region's strengths

Industry analysts and military officials said the US Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center - which develops what soldiers wear and carry, with the help of hundreds of local partners in the technology and health sectors and university researchers - is likely to be an early beneficiary.

Leading robotics manufacturers, including iRobot in Bedford and QinetiQ North America in Waltham, are also likely to see more business as a result of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's new push for unmanned ground systems, they said. And a proposed boost in military surveillance technologies will probably expand the work at the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, along with its contractors and laboratories along Route 128.

"When it comes to robotics technologies and high-tech tools for front-line use, it typically involves smaller firms as well as university-based research efforts," said Rebecca Loveland, research manager at the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, who recently completed a study of the regional economic impact of defense contracts and research grants. "Additional funding for the development of new defense technologies and systems, including unmanned vehicles and communications and surveillance programs, would likely play to the Commonwealth's strengths."

Last year there was a total of $12.8 billion in federal defense contracts in Massachusetts alone, nearly double from 2002, according to the Defense Technology Initiative, a local trade group. Although major defense corporations account for the majority of them, smaller companies, research labs, and universities are close behind.

A 2007 UMass study found that MIT was fourth in total military-related contract work in Massachusetts, behind corporate heavyweights Raytheon, General Dynamics, and General Electric. The private Charles Draper Laboratory was fifth, while many smaller entities ranked in the top 20, including high-tech firms BBN Technologies in Cambridge and Sencom Corporation in Billerica.

"Some of our traditional contracts to big companies are very, very large, but Massachusetts' economic system has a very strong capacity for research and development and technology innovation," Loveland said, noting that Massachusetts competes with California for the largest number of defense-related federal grants.

"If there is an emphasis on new technology development, we compete very well," she added.

The proposed $534 billion Pentagon budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, which Gates announced on Monday, calls for a 4 percent increase over last year, not including the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In what he called a "strategic reshaping," Gates said his budget will cancel or delay several big-ticket weapons such as ships and aircraft, which would deal a heavy blow to businesses like Waltham-based Raytheon, United Technologies Corp. in Connecticut, and their smaller suppliers. But he plans to spend billions of dollars more on innovative equipment that can help troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, including many cutting-edge technologies developed in New England.

That includes at least a $400 million boost in research to improve troops' body armor and protective clothing.

"The secretary of defense is trying to ensure we are providing the capabilities for our warfighters," said Army Brigadier General Peter Fuller, a native of Andover who is commander of the Natick facility, a $24 billion operation. "Natick will play a big part in that."

Fuller said Natick is already expanding its medical research, including placing sensors in soldiers' helmets to measure the blunt forces that can cause traumatic brain injury, as well as undertaking new research designed to improve soldiers' stamina for missions at high altitudes in Afghanistan.

He said a main goal in the coming years will be to capture the "technologies coming off the Route 128 corridor."

Gates wants to "retain and accelerate" several programs such as the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle, a 30-pound robot developed by iRobot that conducts surveillance and reconnaissance, and to issue them to all Army combat brigades.

"When you look at irregular warfare and you look at where the Army is shifting resources, I think we are in a great spot," said Joe Dyer, a retired Navy vice admiral and president of iRobot's government and industrial division. His company has already developed nearly 2,700 robots that are employed in Iraq and Afghanistan to help disarm explosive devices.

One of the largest increases proposed was an additional $2 billion next year for "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support for the warfighter," a specialty at Hanscom's Electronic Systems Center.

"Any time you talk about such increases, it usually means more business one way or another for ESC and its contractors," said Chuck Paone, a spokesman for Hanscom.

Paone noted that the center can help the Air Force meet Gates's call for more spending to upgrade unmanned aerial vehicles that survey battlefields and deliver images to ground troops.

The base helps to "develop the sensor packages, software, and communication systems - the things that allow you to offload the data and get it to the commanders," Paone explained.

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.