Firm secures Navy contract
$1M deal to bring in new jobs
NEAL GOSWAMI, Staff Writer 
Tuesday, September 9
    MANCHESTER — A $1 million Navy contract secured by a Manchester firm is expected to supply the area with a handful of new high-tech jobs. Battenkill Technologies Inc. has finalized a contract with Bath Iron Works, of Bath, Maine, to supply a tank corrosion monitoring system for the Navy's DDG 1000 Class destroyer. The contract is valued at more than $1,020,000, according to the company.
    The company was founded in November 2005 by President Bruce N. Nelson and Vice President Jonathan Grant. Originally located in Massachusetts, it moved operations to Manchester in July 2007. It currently serves clients such as the Navy, Coast Guard, Army and other Department of Defense contractors. Vice President Jonathan Grant said he expects the contract will create several engineering jobs in the Manchester area. The company currently has two full-time employees and two part-time employees. Grant said the company will likely hire two more engineers in the short-term, and several technicians in the long-term.
    Grant said Battenkill Technologies provides high-level scientific, engineering and project management support to government sponsored research and development programs. It develops and commercializes technologies that use advanced algorithms to perform functions normally performed by human operators or analysts. The current contract is no different, Grant said.
    Battenkill Technologies has developed sensors to be placed inside the ballast tanks of some Navy ships, which will eliminate the need for human technicians to inspect them.
    "The process for inspecting ballast tanks on ships involves sending people into the tank and these people manually examine the tank. That can cost easily $15,000," Grant said. "In a nutshell, it's expensive."
    The sensors will provide data to technicians when the ships return to port every 12-18 months, Grant said. The data recorded on the sensors can be downloaded to a laptop and immediately analyzed, he said. The company is also developing a camera system that can be sent into the ballast tanks if the sensors indicate a problem, according to Grant. Both systems will be delivered to the Navy by 2010.
    The systems being created by Battenkill Technologies will be installed on new Navy ships, but Grant said it is possible the company could see future contracts for existing ships. "We expect that there are other ships that are currently in service that will be retrofitted," he said.
    Bennington County Industrial Corp. Executive Director Peter Odierna said the company is helping to promote Bennington County as a place for high-end manufacturing.
    In addition, Battenkill Technologies is creating better paying jobs for the area. "It's consistent with the ongoing objective of creating compelling career opportunities that lift the annual average wage of the community," Odierna said. "It's very advanced stuff. This is very, very technical stuff."