Current Activities & Initiatives

A primary activity for MTA has been to serve on a Maryland Military Facilities Team with DBED, representatives from all Maryland counties, other State of Maryland Alliances and Maryland Congressional staffs.

The Maryland Military Facilities Team is dedicated to educating the Department of Defense and Congress on the high value and contribution of the Federal Defense bases, facilities and personnel resident in the State of Maryland in order to better position them in the forthcoming Fiscal Year 2005 Base Reduction and Closure Action (currently called the Federal Efficient Facility Initiative).

MTA's particular focus in this undertaking has been the Navy's Carderock Division. Other efforts have included working with Maryland businesses, Navy labs and universities to develop naval and maritime programs for Federal funding support that will enhance our economic and national security interests. MTA, in its role as the area's point of contact for maritime matters, has been an active spokesman for such programs with the Department of Defense and Congress.

Specific initiatives include:

Information exchange - industry, academia, government and congressional

Promotion of maritime projects

Quarterly newsletter

Attendance and facilitation of meetings and forums

Interaction with congressional staffs and support of Congressional breakfasts

Educational initiatives

Participation in Maryland Military Facilities Team and SMART regional activities

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the US—about 200 miles long with more than 11,000 miles of shoreline containing more than 18 trillion gallons of water.

The Bay watershed encompasses 64,000 square miles and includes 6 states with more than 150 major rivers & streams.

The Maryland area is home to world’s foremost maritime R&D and test and evaluation facilities located at the Carderock Division’s West Bethesda, MD site. This site is supported by the greatest concentration of scientists and engineers in the country dedicated to naval and maritime technology.

Two major ports are served by the Bay, Baltimore and Hampton Roads, with more than 15 million people living in the watershed area.

The port of Baltimore is more than 300 years old and is one of the busiest ports on the East Coast, handling more than 30 million tons of cargo per year.

Economically, the port employs more than 126,000 Marylanders, generating $1.4B in revenue annually.

Our ports and harbors are a critical element of our domestic homeland security.

The DELMARVA area is home to a vast array of premier boat Builders and designers.