Space Photonics gets military contract
4-year , $16.2 million award to enable company to upgrade, enlarge
BY LAURIE WHALEN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE — A recently awarded military contract will allow Space Photonics to compete against established defense contractors and could help increase the base of skilled workers in Northwest Arkansas.
   Space Photonics Inc. announced Monday that it received a four-year, $16.2 million military contract that will allow it to hire at least five electronics development engineers — an idea critical to the mission of the Arkansas Research & Technology Park.
   Phillip S. Stafford, president of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s Technology Development Foundation, which manages the park, including its Genesis Technology Incubator, said the military contract would benefit both the privately held company and the mission of the research and technology park.
   Stafford said it was important to increase the region’s base of highly paid knowledge workers because that would help recruit more technology companies to Northwest Arkansas.
   The Space Photonics award will bring added prestige to the technology incubator, where as many as 12 companies receive university and corporate support.
   We’re always “looking for companies that depend on research and development... to compete in a global economy,” Stafford said.
   Chuck Chalfant, president and chief executive officer of Space Photonics, agreed that the contract takes the company a tier above its usual funding source: Small Business Innovation Research grants administered through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
   His company has won 13 contracts, or nearly $5.4 million in small-business awards.
   In 1995, only $200,000 in awards went to Arkansas businesses. In fiscal 2004, that figure jumped to $5.9 million, according to the University of Arkansas Technology Development Foundation.
   Other research and technology businesses are succeeding at the incubator. Companies like Arkansas Power Electronics International Inc., a research firm dedicated to developing electronic converters and power modules, recently won two government contracts. Zeus Cal-Zark LLC, which develops off-road vehicle systems, also recently won a $1.64 million military contract.
   Even for more mature companies such as Space Photonics, the incubator continues to play an important role in growing the company.
   The contract will allow Space Photonics to build a type of satellite system for use in military aircraft.
   Chalfant said “hard, rugged testing” will now be performed.
   However, earlier small-business grants helped his company complete the research that has proven that the laser technology, traveling distances as long as 52,800 miles, or 85,000 kilometers, can transmit as many as 2.5 gigabytes of surveillance information per second.
   In 1999, when the company began, it occupied one room at the incubator. It now occupies as many as 15 rooms and employs 17 people, including three graduate students.
 

To contact this reporter:
lwhalen@arkansasonline.com

This story was published Wednesday, October 19, 2005