Defense agency honors Sanmina

Division receives recognition in industrial security

Sanmina-SCI Corp.'s Huntsville-based defense and aerospace systems division has received a national award for industrial security achievement.

The division, which has 1,500 employees in Huntsville, received the James S. Cogswell Outstanding Industrial Security Achievement Award by the Defense Security Service, an agency of the Defense Department, according to a company news release.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company is one of 30 out of nearly 12,000 cleared defense contractors to receive the award this year. The Cogswell, named in honor of the late Air Force Col. James S. Cogswell, the first chief of the unified Office of Industrial Security, is considered the most prestigious honor the Defense Security Service can give. Less than 1 percent of cleared defense contractors are given the annual award, which recognizes outstanding achievements in facility security.

Huntsville's Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. also received the award this year.

"The whole concept is for the protection of classified information," said Jim Cocke, senior vice president of Sanmina-SCI's defense and aerospace systems division. "You have to have both the physical systems and the administrative systems in place. "There are certain procedures that must be in place: safes, barriers and secure facilities and meeting rooms."

Sanmina-SCI's defense and aerospace systems division builds communications systems for all branches of the military and defense contractors.

"We do some interesting things here, and we're proud of the impact (our products) have on soldiers," Cocke said.

Cocke said a plant under construction in India slated to build defense and aerospace products likely will not manufacture for the U.S. military but for aerospace companies.

"India is in the market for a lot of airplanes during the next 10 years, and they want some of the parts to be made there," he said.