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Draken notifies state of 100 layoffs at Lakeland Linder International Airport
Paul Nutcher, The Ledger
5 min read
A Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is on display at the Draken International headquarters on Lakeland Linder International airport in Lakeland, Fla. A French-made air-to-air missile was found on company grounds Friday, requiring evacuation of the area and removal by the Air Force.
Defense contractor Draken International at Lakeland Linder International Airport has announced it will lay off up to 100 employees starting May 20.
In a letter to state and city officials, Draken International LLC’s vice president of human resources Stacy L Culvert said, “The United States Air Force has declined to renew the Draken International’s ADAIR II contract.“
“As a result, the company will be required to permanently close a facility in Nevada due to circumstances outside of its control, and such closure will have additional mass layoff implications for the Lakeland, Florida, location at 3300 Flightline Dr.,” the letter went on.
There are 189 Draken employees at Lakeland Airport. Some of the furloughed workers will be offered transfers for job openings in other locations. Draken has locations in Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas, and Kinston, N.C.
Draken purchases air force assets from other US allied countries, including entire fleets of fighter jets, aircraft parts and machinery to regenerate and maintain the aircraft for training exercises with the US Air Force and other international military forces.
The May 4 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (or WARN) letter was sent to Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz and Christina Omran, Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity's state trade and rapid response coordinator.
"I do think we'll find those people jobs around the airport area, because there is a wide skill set with respect to whose out there," Mutz said.
"And I think we will see Draken come back and, you know, hire a lot of that back," the mayor added. "It's just a function of they have to work underneath the contracts they secure."
Draken has a lease for space at the airport that they intend to keep for their aircraft, Mutz said.
"There is no change in any of the lease or anything," he said. "This is a response to the contract or lack thereof."
Air Force EOD, explosive ordnance disposal specialists, leave the Draken International headquarters on Lakeland Linder International airport in Lakeland, Florida August 19, 2020. [PIERRE DUCHARME/THE LEDGER]
Draken's lease for the hanger and office space was originally signed in 2013. The city and the defense contractor agreed to a second modification on May 28, 2020 to step increases in rent payments and up to $15,000 in credits for fuel purchases.
The lease also said Draken had made improvements to the property it occupies at the Airside Center and sets out a schedule of monthly installments to rent the facility.
Most of the workers losing their jobs were in the company's F-1 regeneration program, said Christina Childs, director of marketing and communications for Draken. The USAF opted not to use the option year in its current contract, therefore the last flights with Draken will be on June 4, she said.
The USAF had given Draken a 60 days notice regarding the end of the contract.
For example, Draken will be training with the military in the United Kingdom.
"We are just scaling back in the U.S. side," she said. "It's the nature of the business. We had the contract, we scaled up for that. We no longer have the contract, we are scaling back."
"We had a really large regeneration effort that was happening for our F-1s and we are actually going to be stopping regenerating aircraft and now we are going to go into sustainment and modernization," Childs added.
The regeneration program had been taking unflyable aircraft salvaging it with different parts and making it flyable, she said. The workers to be laid off in Lakeland and Las Vegas who had tasks within the F-1 regeneration program are the ones who will be laid off as well as administration supporting the program.
Draken is in the process of acquiring F-16s, parts and machinery from the Dutch to advance their adversarial training capabilities for the future once the defense contractor gets State Department approval, Childs said.
A recent report on The Drive in its The War Zone section said Draken has been praised for years for "helping the Air Force fulfill a huge training gap at its most prestigious training installation – Nellis Air Force Base."
The base near Las Vegas is home to the USAF's elite Weapons School, a large part of the Operational Test community, and the service's massive Red Flag aerial wargames, the report said.
Using Draken fighter jets and its retired military pilots, current USAF pilots would only need to attend training against Draken's adversarial pilots, however, both sides of the combat training will now have to come from inside the military.
"It seems clear that Nellis wants higher-end capabilities than what is currently being made available by Draken's fleet," wrote Tyler Rogoway for The Drive report.
"This is not all that surprising," he wrote. "The migration to a more advanced, true 4th generation fighter capability equipped with datalinks, advanced radars, and things like infrared search and track systems has always been in the works."
Unmanned flight vehicles could be one option as they are "the new era of things, but to be honest the technology is a little far off," Childs said.
As to what the USAF will do next: "We are not really sure," Childs said.
Paul Nutcher covers business and industry for The Ledger. He can be reached at pnutcher@gannett.com.
