Since Revolutionary war days, the New England region has been an academic and manufacturing incubator for advanced weaponry design and development. In today's current environment of heightened Homeland Security and global entanglements overseas, the push for military and defense munitions, equipment and systems continues. As a result, The Hope Group has found opportunity within the New England six-state region to bring its engineering and manufacturing capabilities to the table with the local defense contractors for weapons, communications, logistic and other support systems.

Defense Project Solutions
Our sales engineers, design team and fabricators have been working on project solutions that range from motion-simulators, to portable communications antennas, to boom-turret actuators, to smart bomb systems, weapon systems cooling and vehicle shock mitigation technologies. Each of these projects has been completed, is currently underway or reached contract stage. The growing impact of the defense market for the company has been significant and currently represents over ten percent of all sales.

Military Ground Systems
Our partnership with Parker has played an important part in identifying and securing the interest of defense contractors with the special capabilities that exist at The Hope Group. The Parker military ground systems group has marshaled all of the resources of Parker's various specialized divisions into a integrated solution provider. For example, a military vehicle upgrade might involve an electronic cooling system, a fuel management system, a hydraulic steering system and an electronic control system, which would require the blending of skills from its Hydraulic, Mobile, Automation, Seal and Fluid Connector divisions. Tapping this powerful coordination within Parker has permitted us to bring a full-line presence to the defense contractors seeking integrated solutions for their new systems.

ITAR Certified
To participate effectively in the defense contracting industry, The Hope Group sought and received its ITAR certification under the auspices of the US Department of State and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) regulations. The Department of State interprets and enforces ITAR. Its goal is to advance national strategic objectives and US foreign policy via the trade controls under ITAR.

For practical purposes, ITAR regulations dictate that information and material pertaining to defense and military related technologies may only be shared with US persons unless approval from the Department of State is received or special exemption is used. The regulations are designed to help protect designs, test data, processes, software codes, etc. Today, when a defense contractor asks if we are ITAR certified, the answer is yes – and proud of it.

ISO 9001:2008 Certified
Not just for the rigors of the defense contractor industry, but for the benefit of itself and all of its industrial customers, The Hope Group sought and was upgraded to ISO 9001:2008 Certification, marking nearly a decade with the designation. The ISO designation is generally described as an established Quality Management System standard which can be customized into a powerful improvement tool. ISO 9001:2008 specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS) for any organization that needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide product that meets customer and applicable regulatory requirements and aims to enhance customer satisfaction.

In practical terms, to implement an ISO 9000 QMS a company seeking certification must: 1) Define its quality oriented policies and objectives, 2) Control its processes, 3) Measure performance, 4) Use the information obtained to make improvement, 5) Keep a record of all pertinent upgrades and improvements. The company is subject to annual audits to assure that it is keeping its commitment to setting and maintaining policies and processes for an effective quality management system.

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