A $60 million security technology testing facility could come to Vicksburg next year, with facilities at both Vicksburg Municipal Airport and U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, if U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson is successful in corralling federal funds for the project in the fiscal year 2010 budget.

Mayor Laurence Leyens said ARES Systems Group — a Bassville, Miss., company specializing in security technology testing and development for the U.S. Department of Defense — has been working with Thompson and ERDC, as well as officials from Vicksburg and Jackson State University to propose and plan the facility, which would be called the National Security Experimentation and Response Capability.

NSERC would be a one-of-a-kind testing site for emerging technologies used by U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Leyens, and would bring an estimated 65 new jobs to the area by the end of 2011. Thompson chairs the Homeland Security Committee in the U.S. House of Represenatives.

Additionally, the project would include building a T-hangar and 100,000-square-foot research center at the airport and bring about a half-dozen planes. Other testing facilities would be built at ERDC, said Leyens, and Jackson State is interested in securing internships for its engineering students at the facility and possibly establishing a satellite educational facility in close proximity to it.

Leyens and ARES representatives met Thursday to publicly announce their pursuit of the NSERC. Neither ERDC, Thompson nor Jackson State had a representative at the meeting, but Leyens said all are on board.

“This is why we’ve been so interested in the airport and have taken it over as a city department. It has tremendous economic development impact for our community, and this is a prime example,” said Leyens. “This facility would not only have a great impact on the airport, it would be one of the biggest economic development projects to come to the city since I’ve been mayor.”

Officials should know around February or March if the funds are secured and the facility will come to Vicksburg. Leyens said Thompson has expressed confidence in getting another earmark for the project. An earmark for the project was approved by the House for the current budget, but did not pass the Senate.

If the money is secured in the 2010 budget, construction on the facility could begin in about a year with operations to begin in early 2010, said Leyens. If successful, the facility could have as many as 150 government and ARES employees on its payroll by 2013.   

Thompson’s Chief of Staff Lanier Avant said his office has yet to discuss the project with ERDC, but added it would welcome the chance to do so. 

“We have a longstanding relationship with ERDC, and if there is a specific request they have that they think would be in the best interest of the residents of Vicksburg and Warren County, we would love to see it,” Avant said.

ERDC is a key partner in the project, as the federal funds to build it would be provided to the ERDC from Homeland Security.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com