FISTA hosts meetings from outside partners for first time

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - This week has been exciting for the FISTA building in Lawton.

One of their biggest partners, Raytheon, has been holding a conference with some of their top executives, a first for FISTA.

Raytheon’s Vice President of Land Warfare and Air Defense Business Unit, said he remembers when FISTA was nothing more than an idea.

Despite that, he calls the relationship between them and FISTA a “perfect marriage.”

He said it just made sense to want to move into the FISTA building, to get closer to those they serve, while benefiting the local community in the process.

“It just makes natural sense that if this is where the Army is developing, and building, and thinking about it, we need to be there with the Army to assist them,” Joe DeAntona said. “So, by default if you will, one of the beneficiaries of that marriage is the local community.”

DeAntona said Fort Sill is incredibly important to Raytheon, due to housing three of their biggest customers, the Army Futures Command, Training Doctrine and Command, and Forcecom.

While he said they’ve come along way since signing on, the idea behind FISTA started at a local restaurant.

“What was it, 3 or 4 years ago we were sitting in the cracker barrel with the mayor and the chamber of commerce, and this was really just a concept. They were bouncing off ideas, like what do you think?” DeAntona said. “It’s been a wonderful journey over the last couple of years, but what I suspect is going to happen is that it’s going to get even closer and tighter. Because, we are now not just talking about things, we’re actually doing things.”

DeAntona said he believes the ongoing transformation and modernization of the U.S. military will lead companies like Raytheon to increase their presence within FISTA and the community over the coming years.