KINSTON, N.C. (NCN News) — More than 400 jobs are coming to Kinston, thanks to a new U.S. Navy aircraft maintenance facility at the North Carolina Global TransPark.
On Thursday (Sept.17), Governor Josh Stein and other dignitaries welcomed the U.S. Navy to the TransPark’s newest hangar for the opening of the Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center East C-130/HH-60 MRO Complex.
“North Carolina aims to be the most military friendly state in the nation,” Stein said. “That includes supporting servicemembers, veterans, their families, and our military installations. This military readiness complex will not only strengthen our military, but it will also create hundreds of good-paying jobs in eastern North Carolina.”
The military will use the facility to maintain, repair and overhaul several military aircraft. Those include the Navy and Marine Corps C/KC-130J Super Hercules and C/KC-130T Hercules military transport aircraft and Air Force HH-60W Jolly Green II advanced combat search and rescue helicopters. The Navy is leasing the facility from the Global TransPark.
The Navy expects to employ more than 400 people at the facility in high-skilled jobs and generate $164 million a year for the eastern North Carolina economy. The Kinston facility is part of the Fleet Readiness Center East at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, where the military overhauls, assembles and tests military aircraft.
Thursday’s event was one of the largest announcements in the history of the Global TransPark, a multimodal industrial park owned and managed by the N.C. Department of Transportation. Officials estimate more than 500 people gathered inside the facility, which is roughly the size of 12 American football fields under one roof.
“The Global TransPark was first envisioned over 30 years ago as a multimodal industrial park that could become a catalyst to drive the economy of eastern North Carolina,” State Transportation Secretary Daniel Johnson said. “With the completion of this project and several other economic development wins, the Global TransPark is taking another major step toward realizing that goal.”
Behind the stage stood a C 130 and an HH 60, forming a commanding backdrop of the military hardware that will soon be made mission ready at the new facility.
In addition to the governor and Johnson, Thursday’s speakers included former N.C. Senator Jim Perry and Erica Plath, deputy assistant Secretary of War for Logistics.
The new complex follows a string of economic development announcements at the Global TransPark, including May’s opening of an academy for Lenoir Community College students seeking careers in aviation.
“This state-of-the-art facility represents a commitment by the U.S. Navy, by Fleet Readiness Center East, and by partners at every level of government – to invest in eastern North Carolina, to create hundreds of skilled jobs and to anchor long-term economic growth in this region,” said GTP Executive Director Jeremy Stroud, who served as the event’s emcee.
The idea for the C-130 complex started in 2020. The Navy selected GTP because the park could accommodate a facility large enough to maintain and repair large military aircraft and the park was centrally located on the East Coast, which maximizes the branch’s military readiness.
“The opening of this major C-130/HH60 MRO facility and Lenoir Community College’s Aviation Center for Excellence, coupled with the arrival of Airbus, all within nine months’ time, marks a historic watershed moment for the North Carolina Global TransPark,” said Tom Hendrickson, chairman of the GTP Authority Board of Directors.
State lawmakers approved a $350 million loan in 2023 to make accommodations for the facility. Most of the construction on the first phase of the complex, which began in March 2024, has been completed with final work expected to be finished next summer.
“This facility puts peace through strength into action – more mission-ready aircraft, faster, for the warfighters who need them,” said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. General David Walsh, deputy portfolio acquisition executive (Aviation) for Marine Corps Aviation.