A Bennington manufacturer is expected to bring up to 300 new jobs to southwestern Vermont as it fills a Pentagon contract to make armor for vehicles going to Afghanistan.
Plasan North America, a subsidiary of an Israeli firm, is joining with a Wisconsin-based company, Oshkosh Corp., to make military all-terrain vehicles designed for Afghanistan's rough terrain.
Some 150 to 200 jobs will be at Plasan, more than doubling the current work force of about 120; others are expected to be added at area subcontractors in what state officials said was one of the largest local job influxes in years.
Bennington plant general manager Bruce Evey said Plasan will build armor components for the vehicles' cabs, while Oshkosh will build their chassis and engines.
"I'm glad we have some good news," Evey said of the job announcement.
John Daggett, director of communications at Oshkosh, called the contract "huge."
"We were competing with some very strong defense contractors, some of the best in the business," he said. "It was a combination of the survivability of this vehicle, which Plasan helped us with, and the mobility, because the terrain over there is unlike any that probably you or I have encountered."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., worked to get the $1 billion in funding for the 2,200 vehicles into an appropriations bill, and he said it's just a lucky coincidence that much of the work is coming to Vermont.
"It was a coincidence, primarily because they make such good armor in Bennington," he said.
Leahy said he traveled recently to Afghanistan and heard repeatedly how much soldiers there wanted the armored ATVs.
"Everybody from the sergeants to the generals told me how much they needed this," he said.
He said he talked on his return with Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who told him the project was being expedited.
Evey said the vehicles to be built will hold four to five soldiers each and will have higher wheel clearances and tighter turning radiuses than similar vehicles used in Iraq.
"The vehicles need to be able to maneuver on rougher terrain," he said. "They'll be off road much more than vehicles in Iraq. The terrain in Afghanistan is much more rugged."
Evey said the company would begin hiring immediately and hoped to have the open jobs filled by the end of August.
David Mace, spokesman for the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development, said it was the largest announcement of new jobs in several years in Vermont, where about 7 percent of residents are unemployed. Bennington, a 2-hour drive south of Montpelier, has about 15,000 residents.
A call to the regional development agency, the Bennington County Industrial Corp., was not immediately returned Wednesday.
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