PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Innovation is meeting national defense on the Portsmouth waterfront, where a new partnership between Fairlead and Fairwinds Technologies promises to equip America’s front lines with smarter, safer technology, and bring new opportunities to the region’s workforce.
Fred Pasquin of Fairlead described the company’s core mission as multifaceted.
“Our mission is to help bring the warfighter home, and we do that in four ways,” Pasquin said. “You saw what we do here with building modular sections of aircraft carriers and submarines. We also repair ships in Hampton Roads, similar to the ships you see behind us. We operate a shipping terminal at Fairwinds Landing. And finally, we engineer and build equipment that goes on ships and subs, and much of that equipment is starting to integrate this new technology that Jim can talk about.”
Fairwinds Technologies focuses on communications solutions for those on the front lines.
“Fairwinds Technologies is a communications company providing satellite communications and wireless networks to the soldier or sailor. We want to provide anywhere, anytime voice, video, and data access allowing military users to have the most accurate real-time information at their fingertips to make critical decisions,” Chief Executive Officer James Sprungle said.
The partnership’s efforts are already making waves in the defense sector.
“One of the contract vehicles Fairwinds Technologies holds is a Navy multi-award contract vehicle with a $10 billion ceiling. The Navy is modernizing its ship and submarine fleets with all sorts of equipment, from sonar buoys and refrigeration systems to radars and satellite communications,” Sprungle said. “Fairwinds Technologies has been awarded almost $300 million in the last five months under this contract vehicle to modernize Navy and maritime ships and submarines.”
Beyond traditional equipment, the two companies are investing in autonomy, artificial intelligence, and advanced communications, including solutions for high-security ‘zero trust’ environments.
“With multi-domain autonomy, it’s about bringing together data processing, communications, and artificial intelligence, and that communications piece is critical, particularly in zero-trust environments,” Pasquin said.
Fairwinds is also working to bring new communications tools directly to service members’ hands. Sprungle said Fairwinds Technologies has partnered with AST SpaceMobile to advance this technology within the military.
“We recently returned from end-user testing in Hawaii that validated this data being pushed to cell phones, which is a real game changer in the industry. We don’t have to carry such large equipment anymore, and it’s available anywhere, in real time,” Sprungle said.
With Portsmouth home to major naval and shipbuilding facilities, community pride is central to this story.
“I think our region has so much to be proud of. We have the largest naval base in the world here in Norfolk. We have the largest shipbuilder in the country at Newport News. We’re adjacent to Norfolk Naval Shipyard. You can see the repair capability our port has. We’re a maritime community. When you look at the technology coming into the Navy, and the partnerships it takes to make that happen, there’s a lot to be excited about. Whether it’s people who want to work with their hands and minds building ships, or those who want to write code and develop the technology that goes on those platforms, there’s a lot to be proud of here in this region, especially with what’s happening right here in Portsmouth,” Pasquin said.
Ultimately, these advances are about people, not just technology or ships. Sprungle highlighted the focus on connecting service members.
“We’re looking to enable communications technology so a soldier or sailor can stay connected anywhere both for work communications, downloading priorities or message traffic, and for personal connections to their spouses and children. In many parts of the world, there’s no infrastructure to reach them, so we’re developing a welfare capability that allows our sailors to stay in touch with their loved ones while deployed,” Sprungle said.
“They’re taking the ultimate risk so that we can be here, have this interview, and stand safely,” Pasquin added. “They deserve the best, and partnerships like ours between Fairlead and Fairwinds Technologies bring together the best. That’s what they deserve.”
As new technologies launch from the Portsmouth waterfront, both companies say their top priority remains supporting service members, and the community that calls the waterfront home.
