Johnstown is shaped like a heart in a landscape with mountains on all sides and a river that divides the city in two. Its industry emerged from the mines in the surrounding mountains. Describing Johnstown is like describing Kongsberg.
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Ove Ronny HaraldsenGroup Communication Manager
UP ON THE MOUNTAIN
If you leave the centre and ascend one of the many mountains, namely Richland, you really do arrive at Kongsberg - Kongsberg Protech Systems USA. In-between Lockheed Martin’s many buildings lies 210
Industrial Park Road. This is Kongsberg Protech System’s largest facility outside Kongsberg Technology Park. With almost 200 employees, the former underwear factory has been converted to one of the most modern units in the whole of KONGSBERG. The PROTECTOR Remote Weapon Station (RWS) weapon control system is produced here for the American market. The system makes it possible to control the weapon from inside a vehicle or from another protected position.
Every time you enter the heart of production it is like stepping into a film. As you round the corner and see the production hall, you feel as if everything has stopped for a microsecond. The light automatically makes you squint. Your eyes dance through the premises - back and forth, up and down. It is so white, so clean, and so stylish. And pleasant. Everyone says hello and smiles while you move through the premises from new production, testing, and cable production to repairs and maintenance.
BILL IN THE CAGE
After a tour of the premises we met Bill Houser. He was sitting behind a desk in the corner of what must be KONGSBERG’s largest office. But then he does need space for a lot of things in his office. “Nothing leaves this room without the approval of the American authorities,” smiles a wily Bill. He has crates full of equipment that are just sitting there waiting to be collected. All the equipment in here is actually the property of the American military. Weapon stations that have returned from service and require repair or maintenance.
We move on into a jungle of crates. Stacks and stacks of them, and end up in a RWS shower! Here, every station that is returned is flushed and washed down after everything in the crate has been carefully recorded. “We have washed off a lot of desert sand here,” says David Sponsky.
He and his colleague Mitchell Hill together wash, brush and record the items that are forwarded for repair and maintenance. The room has its own odour. It is not soap, it is more the smell of damp cardboard. When you look at the crates with weapon stations everywhere you see clear signs of water and damp on them. “Everything you see around here are stations that have been returned from service. They have stood out in the rain and are full of sand and dirt. You never know what is hiding in the crate,” says Mitchell. We leave the wash hall and return to the factory premises. Here we meet David Zucco.
