LA PLATA — Defense contractors working with the Navy at Indian Head expect to hire more than 200 scientists, engineers and technicians in the next six months, Charles County’s economic development staff told the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday. The same morning, commissioners put another $180,000 behind the county’s effort to grow the Western Charles County Technology Corridor.
The hiring is driven by a run of contracts from Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division, one of the largest employers in Charles County. For western Charles, it is the clearest sign yet that the Navy’s long-planned modernization at Indian Head is turning into private-sector jobs near the base.
“We’re finally starting to see some significant hiring taking place in the corridor,” said Mark Thompson, chief of commercial development for the county’s Economic Development Department. Thompson said the Navy has let a number of contracts and private-sector firms are scaling up to meet the mission.
$180,000 from fund balance
The money approved Tuesday is fiscal 2027 budget amendment No. 170, which pays for “strategic advisory services” to advance economic development in the corridor. Budget staff said it will come from the county’s unassigned fund balance, which stood at just over $3.1 million as of June 30. That means the advisory contract uses a little under 6% of the unassigned balance.
Commissioners approved the amendment 4-0 without discussion. Commissioner Patterson was absent from the morning session. The item as read into the record did not name the firm or adviser that will provide the services or describe the scope of the work.
A corridor built around the base
The corridor covers about 7.67 square miles, from Indian Head to Bryans Road and the Maryland Airport, according to a May 19 county news release announcing new corridor signage. Naval Support Facility Indian Head anchors the zone as the Navy’s center for energetics, which develops the explosives, propellants and related systems used in munitions and propulsion.
The county’s release put the Navy’s planned modernization investment at the facility at about $2.7 billion over the next decade. Thompson told commissioners that three road signs were installed in May with help from Public Works, the State Highway Administration and George Clark of the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland.
The money flowing through the base has already grown sharply. In fiscal 2024, NSWC Indian Head obligated nearly $1 billion in contracts, according to a Naval Sea Systems Command article from October 2024. More than $95 million went directly to Charles County-based businesses, and the command paid more than $353 million in Maryland salaries that year. The Navy’s contracts chief at Indian Head said then that the base had not seen that level of spending in more than a decade.
The Chronicle reported in June on a $250 million-plus energetics hub project launching in western Charles County, part of the same buildout.
Job fair doubles in size
To help contractors fill those jobs, the Economic Development Department held a job fair in April with the Tri-County partnership and the College of Southern Maryland. Thompson called it very successful.
A second fair was set for Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Velocity Center in Indian Head. Thompson said it would be twice as big, with 11 employers and 400 pre-vetted applicants. He credited department staffer Paul Rupert with organizing both events.
The Velocity Center is the College of Southern Maryland’s innovation and training center just outside the base gate. It opened in September 2020 as a roughly 13,000-square-foot, $2.2 million project funded by state grants, state bond bills, the county and the college, according to CSM. It was built as a place where Navy scientists, industry and students could work together.
The workforce push reaches beyond the base. CSM has also landed grants for manufacturing training this fall. The jobs Thompson described are highly skilled positions, and the April and October fairs used pre-screened applicant pools rather than open walk-in hiring.
‘Just the start’
Thompson told commissioners the current hiring is “just the start,” given the demand his office is seeing from the Navy. He said the department appreciates the board’s support for its corridor work.
The department’s next public event is its annual fall meeting on Nov. 10, hosted by the College of Southern Maryland at its La Plata campus. Thompson said this year’s theme is entrepreneurship.
Residents and businesses can find more on the corridor through the county’s economic development technology page.
