Aerospace and defense is third largest gross exporter, shipping $142B in 2017

ARLINGTON, Va.Aerospace and defense businesses shipped more than $142 billion in exports, representing a 26 percent increase over five years, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data. The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry is the third largest gross exporter in the U.S. and generated the largest trade surplus of any U.S. industry, $86 billion in 2017, officials at the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) in Arlington, Virginia, explain while releasing 2017 industry trade figures.

“Exports of U.S. aerospace and defense products drive American global competitiveness,” AIA officials say. “The aerospace and defense industry supports our national security and drives our nation’s economy. It fuels innovation, creates competition, and employs millions of Americans.”

2017 data indicates the following:

1. The U.S. Aerospace & Defense (A&D) industry generated $143 billion worth of exports in 2017. Over the past five years, A&D exports have grown by 26 percent, or from $113 billion in 2012 to $143 billion in 2017.
2. A&D accounted for nine percent of all U.S. exports in domestic goods and is the nation’s third largest exporting industry.
3. A&D is the nation’s leading net exporting industry and generated a trade surplus of $86 billion in 2017.
4. Exports of supply chain products including engines, components and parts, accounted for 56 percent, or $80 billion of total U.S. A&D exports.
5. The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of A&D products and accounted for 34 percent of global A&D exports, up four percent since 2010.

Source: Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), based on data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, 2018.

The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), founded in 1919, only a few years after the birth of flight, is an authoritative and influential trade association representing the U.S. aerospace and defense industry on Capitol Hill, within the administration and internationally.

Based in Arlington, Va., AIA is led by a Board of Governors that meets twice a year and consists of senior representatives of member companies at the c-suite level, and an Executive Committee that meets more frequently. A hallmark of AIA is that it receives its policy guidance from the direct involvement of CEO-level officers of companies of all sizes across all levels of our industry.

Today, more than 340 major aerospace and defense companies and their suppliers are members of the association, embodying every high-technology manufacturing segment of the U.S. aerospace and defense industry including commercial aviation and avionics, manned and unmanned defense systems, and space technologies and satellite communications.

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