U.S. Navy photo by Gary Wagner Maryland's Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown was greeted by Capt. Neil Stubits (l.), commander for Indian Head Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, and Capt. Judy Smith, commanding officer for Naval Support Activity South Potomac.

Accompanying Brown was Asuntha Chiang-Smith, executive director for the Governor’s Subcabinet on Base Realignment and Closure.

The lieutenant governor’s trip to Indian Head on Jan. 28 was coordinated by the Indian Head Defense Alliance. The day’s schedule also included a session with the alliance that gave the group an opportunity to review the Alliance’s activities in support of IHDIV and to discuss current state initiatives aimed at supporting military installations in Maryland.

Capt. Neil Stubits, commander for IHDIV, NSWC, hosted the lieutenant governor for a mission briefing that highlighted the command’s role as ‘‘the warfighter’s lifeline,” as well as IHDIV’s extensive involvement in promoting education and research programs through state and local colleges and universities.

Capt. Stubits emphasized IHDIV’s critical role as a national leader in energetics. ‘‘We have a unique capability to move energetic products from concept development through production to operational deployment,” he pointed out.

‘‘Specifically, the command currently accounts for more than 60 percent of all energetics work in the Navy, and 70 percent of all new explosives deployed in U.S. weapons since 1985 were developed at Indian Head Division,” Stubits added. ‘‘We’re not really ‘Navy blue.’ We’re really a ‘purple’ organization in that we support all DoD services and other government agencies.”

The command’s support to the current Global War on Terror, he reported, has included the development and deployment of new thermobaric weapons as well as energetics for an upgraded shoulder-launched multipurpose assault weapon and an anti-structural hand grenade munition, all in record times.

Stubits also outlined for the lieutenant governor IHDIV’s modernization plan which is focused on building and consolidating the command’s research and manufacturing facilities on board NSF Indian Head to provide state-of-the-art laboratories and streamline production processes.

Also highlighted in the IHDIV briefing was the command’s extensive work to develop and support education at many levels. IHDIV has formed training partnerships with the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and the College of Southern Maryland to maintain and develop technical expertise and advance the science of energetics.

The Center for Energetics Concept Development (CECD) was established in 1998 through an on-going cooperative program with the University of Maryland. Since then, Stubits reported, the Navy has funded over $8 million in research activities through the CECD and supported over 100 research projects critical to the development and revitalization of the nation’s capabilities in energetics.

More recently, in partnership with the Charles County Board of Education and College of Southern Maryland, IHDIV launched its pilot program ‘‘Go Places! With Math and Science,” where IHDIV scientists and engineers team with teachers in conducting lesson plans. The goal is to spark the interest of students from elementary through high school to pursue careers in engineering and science by bringing ‘‘real life rocket scientists” to the classroom. This is intended to address the increasing future workforce demands in technical occupations across the county, state and nation.

In his remarks to the Indian Head Defense Alliance at the conclusion of his visit, Lieutenant Governor Brown reflected on what he had seen and heard, and emphasized the desire by Maryland to support military installations throughout the state. ‘‘We understand the responsibility you have to support the warfighter,” Brown said. ‘‘And because of our own commitment within the state government to support the warfighter, we understand our responsibility is to help expand infrastructure needed to support our bases, and to keep the workforce pipeline filled.”

- Gary Wagner, Naval Support Activity South Potomac Public Affairs, contributed to this report.