Yesterday, Raytheon announced that it is backing out of a bidding competition to build a new Air Force training program called the T-100. Back in December, Raytheon had chosen Meridian as the place to build the program if Raytheon had won the bidding competition.
In light of this news, Mayor Percy bland discussed how the city plans to move forward.
“We will continue to remain united behind the work of Bill Hannah and the EMBDC and all those involved in the relentless pursuit of us bringing jobs and opportunities to our city,” said Bland.
Raytheon had partnered with an Italian company called Leonardo. The two were competing against four other companies to build the T-100.
“The two companies that were partnering together for us to win that bid, just decided that they would not be able to do something in the best interest of the air force, and they pulled out of the competition,” said Bland.
He explained that even though the T-100 isn’t coming to Meridian, the city’s economic future looks bright.
“It’s one of those things where a lot of good came out of everything. We had a lot of positives. For one, this is the first time in a long time that Meridian has been a chosen site for a large manufacturer or a large industry to come and possibly put their company. The bottom line is we’re well positioned for other industries to come here off of the positive things that happened through this whole process.”
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