This content is sponsored by ST Engineering.
Washington is home to the federal government, but the region also has a vast array of cutting-edge businesses, including those with a national and international scope.
One of them is ST Engineering North America, which has headquarters in Alexandria, Va.
The highly diversified company employs more than 7,000 people in the U.S., operating in more than 50 cities in 21 states.
Tim McBride is the president of ST Engineering North America and recently spoke with wtop.com about the company’s big family of diverse operations.
The company now has deep roots in the U.S., but its origin stretches thousands of miles away — to Singapore, where the company got its start.
“The company really started as a critical partner to the Singapore government when Singapore first gained its independence more than 50 years ago,” McBride says.
In the more than half-century since, ST Engineering has established numerous business operations in the U.S.
“We now have a rather diverse portfolio in the U.S., representing…defense, but also transport solutions, urban solutions — which deals with automated tolling,” McBride says.
He also points out that the company is the largest aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider in the world.
McBride says ST Engineering North America is involved in “fixing the airplanes that Americans fly on every day.”
The company has major operations in San Antonio, Texas, Mobile, Alabama, Pensacola, Florida and Baltimore, Maryland.
Unique niche in Maryland
The business in Maryland involves the manufacturing of nacelles, which enclose the housing for jet engines and other parts of an aircraft.
McBride says the public may not be aware that the company’s work has involved converting decommission passenger jets into freight aircraft.
He notes that during the pandemic, demand for the service was “through the roof.”
“There was so much air freight going on that UPS and FedEx were after us to help with those conversions,” McBride says.
ST Engineering acquired Middle River Aerostructure Systems (MRAS) in Baltimore in 2018, allowing it to scale up its aerospace capabilities.
The Middle River facility is celebrating its 95 anniversary and has played a major role in U.S. aviation.
“We’re really proud of that investment,” McBride says.
Among the many things that take place at Middle River is manufacturing of the cowling that goes around commercial and military engines.
“We expect to expand,” McBride says. “We want to make room for additional manufacturing here in the United States.”
McBride says ST Engineering is pursuing opportunities with the Marine Corps and commercial customers with a unique aircraft known as the AirFish.
“It might look like a seaplane, but it’s really considered a maritime vessel, McBridge says.
He says it’s “just one example of where we see Middle River fitting into the future expansion.”
McBride says overall, about half of the company’s U.S. employees are involved in the aerospace sector.
Solving problems
ST Engineering clearly covers a lot of ground.
“I like to think of it as solving customers’ problems through innovation and technology,” McBride says. “I think that’s the core of what the company has done for its entire existence.”
He says a potential customer comes to them with problem and the company “helps design those solutions.”
Among the many examples, he cites the way the company has helped improve the efficiency of international shipping.
“In Singapore…you’ll see hundreds if not thousands of freighters waiting to offload their cargo…as a gateway to Asia,” he says. “We have developed autonomous drones that deliver documents to those crafts. So we’re a leader in that.”
Here in the U.S., the company has helped with the development of automatic tolling.
“Our company works with municipalities to automatically collect tolls,” he says. “For instance, many around the country will know us by E-Z Pass or SunPass in Florida.”
He points out that the company has nothing to do with setting the rate of the tolls, but provides a technological solution that helps keep traffic moving.
As commuters in the Washington area know, E-Z Pass has had a major presence on highways in Virginia and Maryland for many years.
Smart cities
Urban planners have become increasingly interested in the possibilities for so-called “smart cities.”
That is another area where part of the ST Engineering corporate family is expanding.
“TransCore represents probably our biggest penetration in the smart cities in the U.S.,” McBridge says. “It really captures the imagination of those who wonder, what piece of smart cities do we plan?”
He says the key is finding a home for various applications, such as smart parking, traffic management and subway safety.
“We have a solution that actually has glass doors that move with the train cars,” he says.
The technology can determine where the right place is to open a glass door, when a subway car nears a platform stop.
“So finding those places where our solutions can provide the greatest benefit is part of our challenge,” he says. “But we also work with our customers to design solutions as well, and that comes back to our being a solution provider.”
Looking to the future
ST Engineering is involved in a whole host of other operations.
It is also fully committed to sustainability, as the company moves forward, with a sustainability council in the U.S.
So what’s ahead?
“I think the challenge for me and our team in the United States is to identify those solutions the company has deployed all around the world, that might have a home here,” McBride says.
He notes that ST Engineering North America has a dozen different companies in the U.S. and they are seeking out solutions all the time.
He works closely with colleagues in Singapore to try to identify some of the technologies “that we think would resonate here in the United States.”
“We call them so-called pull-through productions — products that have found a home either in Singapore or somewhere else in the world, that might resonate here in the U.S. and the U.S. market,” he says.
McBride says the company is dedicated to growth, whether it’s in the defense sector, urban solutions or connectivity.
He says “there’s a lot of opportunity” for ST Engineering North America to expand in the United States, where the company has already had quite an impact.
