Osceola center seeks key defense-tech role
BRIDG hopes to gain status as top-secret lab
The high-tech BRIDG research center near Kissimmee has just opened its doors, but a new effort is emerging that could double the size of the 109,000-square-foot facility and give it a key role with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Chester Kennedy, CEO of BRIDG, confirmed that the organization is seeking status as a consolidated top-secret laboratory — known as a trusted foundry — for cutting-edge military microelectronics.
The design of new, cuttingedge microchips for jet fighters, nuclear submarines or spy satellites is a difficult, confidential task. Federal watchdogs have been warning since 2005 that the number of qualified chipmakers and designers in the U.S. was dwindling. Much of that kind of work moved overseas.
“We are investigating the costs of securing and maintaining accreditation, as well as any limitations this might impose on our ability to support commercial business,” said Kennedy, a
former executive with the biggest U.S. defense contractor, Lockheed Martin. “Clearly, the nation is beginning to recognize the need to strategically address the issue.”
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, DWinter Park, sits on the House Armed Services Committee. She is working on more funding and encouraging accreditation of the facility for more defense work.
“There is plenty of demand for sensors made in the United States, to have a logistics and supply chain that is secure. I think it’s really important for the military and industry to have those national capabilities," Murphy said. She said she is seeking more funding soon through the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Kennedy said a formal request for proposals from the federal government regarding new trusted foundries could come later this year. The Defense Department lists 78 trusted foundries in the U.S., but many of those are dedicated to a specific contractor, such as Lockheed’s facility in south Orlando. BRIDG and other players are helping Congress analyze alternatives to the existing situation.
BRIDG is an ambitious not-forprofit project to attract high-paying jobs to the Orlando area by researching and manufacturing new microchips, nano-technology and photonics. BRIDG itself is hiring about 50 people, while other entities at the facility are expected to employ as many as 250 eventually. But a study commissioned by the Orlando EDC (now Orlando Economic Partnership) suggests that success at the facility could lead eventually to thousands of higher-paying jobs — such as software designers and engineers. Osceola County funded its construction at $70 million.
Defense contracts were always part of the plan for BRIDG, but the trusted status would expand that role. Its big sales volume is expected to come from commercial tech — such as sensors in selfdriving cars or new ways to monitor vital signs for health care.
The large new BRIDG lab, 200 NeoCity Way, was built with the idea that it could be expanded. The western wall of the building is designed for connections to an expansion. The project has teamed up with Belgium-based imec, a European leader in nanotechnology, which also is hiring for the new facility now.
According to Kennedy, the possible expansion of BRIDG would not be funded by Osceola County, but it could come from federal money.
“Most of this work was done at an old IBM facility in New York, which was bought by a United Arab Emirates company,” Kennedy said. “There is government interest in having a consolidated U.S.-owned supplier.”
IBM dominated the most innovative U.S. military chip design during the past decade, in two facilities in Vermont and New York.
But IBM cut loose those operations in 2015, after declaring them unprofitable, by selling them to GlobalFoundries, which is owned by a United Arab Emirates company. The sale raised concerns immediately about the ongoing supply of such technology to the U.S. military. It is that niche that BRIDG is currently investigating.
Without stating any specific fear about GlobalFoundries, Congress and the federal government are concerned that technology in military equipment should be “free of exploitable vulnerabilities, either intentionally or unintentionally designed or inserted as part of the system at any time during its life cycle,” according to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017.