Blackwater to upgrade copters in Pasquotank

Blackwater Worldwide plans to use its existing facility in Pasquotank County to upgrade its expanding fleet of Black Hawk helicopters, Assistant Pasquotank County Manager Rodney Bunch said Thursday.

Bunch said Blackwater has a facility in Moyock where workers currently upgrade Black Hawk helicopters the company purchases by adding sophisticated electronic equipment. That work will just be expanded to the target systems manufacturing facility Blackwater already operates at Pasquotank Commerce Park, he said.

No approvals are needed for the expansion because the helicopter upgrades are an allowed use at the target manufacturing plant site, Bunch said.

He said he expects Blackwater to begin its Black Hawk helicopter upgrades at Commerce Park in about two months. He expects few, if any, new jobs will be created.

Helicopters will fly and leave the site, but there will be no test flying and no manufacture of aircraft taking place at the site, Bunch said.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell could not be reached Thursday to say how much work the company plans to perform at its Pasquotank site, or what effect the expansion will have on the plant’s target-making operations.

Commerce Park is about eight miles north of Elizabeth City off U.S. Highway 17.

Blackwater has been at Commerce Park for more than three years after signing an agreement with Pasquotank County in 2004 to use the county’s long vacant shell building.

Blackwater chose Pasquotank County over other sites, including Greenville, for its target manufacturing division, bringing an estimated 50 to 100 jobs to the area.

Blackwater Target Systems designs and builds shooting-range targets for law enforcement and other agencies. In addition, remote-piloted blimps reportedly have been manufactured at the company’s Commerce Park facility.

Blackwater Worldwide, headquartered in Moyock, is one of several private contractors providing U.S. military assistance in Iraq