Ohio: Where America's Aerospace and Defense Future Is Being Built

By JobsOhio

Wilbur and Orville Wright didn’t just invent the airplane in Ohio. They invented the future of human flight. More than a century later, the state they called home has never stopped building, evolving and testing the limits of what’s possible in aerospace and defense.

Today, Ohio sits at the center of one of the most consequential conversations in modern defense and aerospace — how the United States maintains its technological edge in an era of accelerating competition, evolving threats and transformational capabilities.

The answer increasingly runs through Ohio.

For aerospace and defense contractors seeking proximity to the mission, access to world-class talent, and a state genuinely committed to their success, Ohio is not merely an option. It is the strategic choice.

A State Committed to Your Growth

Defense and aerospace programs demand certainty — of schedule, of cost, of capability. Ohio’s business environment is built around that same principle. The state offers among the most competitive operating costs in the country, a regulatory environment that moves at the speed of business, and a suite of incentives specifically designed to support advanced manufacturing, R&D investment, and large-scale job creation.

JobsOhio — Ohio’s private economic development organization — works directly with aerospace and defense companies at every stage of their growth. JobsOhio's Advanced Aerospace and Defense Super Sector is a targeted economic development engine built around Ohio's singular concentration of military installations, federal research labs, and aerospace industrial capacity — designed to attract, grow and retain the companies defining the next generation of flight, space, and defense technology. It is, simply, how Ohio turns its aerospace legacy into tomorrow's missions. From site selection and workforce development to supply chain integration and R&D collaboration, JobsOhio brings the full weight of state resources to bear on helping companies grow bigger and succeed faster.

The Mission Is Here

No state offers a more concentrated or strategically significant military and federal presence than Ohio. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, home to Air Force Materiel Command and the Air Force Research Laboratory, is Ohio’s single largest employer — a sprawling hub of acquisition, technology development and operational readiness that drives innovation and contract activity across the region. AFRL alone houses some of the most advanced research programs in directed energy, hypersonics, autonomy and next-generation propulsion anywhere in the world.

Ohio is also home to a significant U.S. Space Force presence and some of the most consequential space intelligence infrastructure in the nation. The National Space Intelligence Center (NSIC) at WPAFB serves as the Space Force's primary intelligence agency, responsible for evaluating capabilities, vulnerabilities, and threats across space and counterspace systems. Co-located with the Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) — which has supported space intelligence missions since the 1950s — the NSIC has grown rapidly, now encompassing four Intelligence Analysis Squadrons as of mid-2025. With NSIC, one-third of Space Force Intelligence is run through Ohio. The base also hosts the 76th ISR Squadron, further deepening the Space Force's operational footprint at Wright-Patt.

That footprint continues to expand. In September 2025, the Space Force formally stood up the Space Intelligence Production Cell (SIPC) at Springfield-Beckley Air National Guard Base, a new combined operations floor designed to better integrate space intelligence into real-time military operations.

Together, Ohio’s 14 military and federal installations create an irreplaceable network in America’s national defense infrastructure.

For contractors, proximity to the mission isn’t a convenience. It’s a competitive advantage. Building, testing, and deploying next-generation defense systems requires deep collaboration with the military customers who will depend on them. Ohio puts them in the room.

Ohio's Four Air National Guard Flying Wings

The Ohio Air National Guard operates four flying wings distributed across the state, each with a distinct mission:

• 121st Air Refueling Wing (Columbus/Rickenbacker)
• 178th Wing (Springfield)
• 179th Airlift Wing (Mansfield)
• 180th Fighter Wing (Toledo/Swanton)

For companies and contractors, the wings represent a standing in-state market. Sustainment needs for aging aircraft create continuous MRO and procurement opportunities, while the 178th's UAS mission connects directly to Ohio's emerging drone corridor.

For veterans seeking employment, the picture is equally strong. Their skills translate directly to civilian aerospace and defense roles — often near the same bases where they trained.

Taken together, Ohio's four wings are both a defense industrial asset and a distributed talent pipeline.

The Path to Space Runs Through Ohio

NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is one of the world’s most consequential aerospace research institutions. Glenn's world-class expertise in power, propulsion and communications is crucial to advancing the Artemis program, and its fingerprints are on virtually every major U.S. space program from Mercury and the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station. The center contributes more than $2 billion annually to Ohio's economy, employing more than 3,200 civil servants and on-site contractors working across propulsion, nuclear technology, space communications and electrified aviation.

Extending Glenn's reach is its remote campus in Sandusky: the Neil Armstrong Test Facility. This advanced facility is home to the world's largest and most powerful space environment simulation chambers — the only place on Earth that can test a full-sized spacecraft under the extreme conditions of launch and spaceflight. That singular capability isn't academic. In 2019, the Orion spacecraft for Artemis I was tested in the Space Environments Chamber to ensure it could withstand the extreme conditions of launch — work that could only happen in Ohio.

Together, Glenn and Armstrong, and industry leaders like Voyager Space and others form a research and testing continuum that makes Ohio indispensable to America's return to the Moon and the long arc toward Mars.

Industry Leaders & Suppliers Have Already Chosen Ohio

The companies shaping the future of aerospace and defense aren’t just operating in Ohio — they’re expanding here, investing here, and winning here.

• GE Aerospace calls Ohio home, anchoring a manufacturing and innovation ecosystem that spans commercial and military aviation.
• Sierra Nevada Company’s substantial Ohio footprint supports critical space and defense programs.
• Anduril Industries selected Ohio for its Arsenal-1 manufacturing facility — a landmark investment in autonomous and AI-enabled defense systems that signals what the next generation of defense production looks like.
• Joby Aviation chose Dayton as the home of its first scaled manufacturing facility, plus a recent decision to expand with the acquisition of additional space in the area, cementing Ohio as the manufacturing backbone of America's advanced air mobility industry. 

These decisions don’t happen by accident. They reflect a deliberate calculus: Ohio takes emerging aerospace and defense technology from innovation to production at scale. With more than 640 aerospace and aviation firms operating across the state, Ohio also offers a supply chain depth and density that is extraordinarily difficult to replicate.

Talent That Is Battle-Tested and Mission-Ready

Ohio’s aerospace and defense workforce is among the most technically sophisticated in the country — and among the most loyal. The state consistently ranks as one of the most military- and veteran-friendly in the nation, a reflection of the deep culture of service woven through Ohio communities. Veterans bring discipline, security clearances, mission understanding, and technical proficiency that defense contractors cannot easily find or quickly develop elsewhere. Ohio’s military-connected talent pipeline is a structural advantage.

Beyond the veteran workforce, Ohio’s universities and technical colleges produce a continuous stream of engineers, scientists, and technologists. The Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Dayton, and dozens of regional institutions are actively partnering with industry to align curricula with the real-world demands of modern defense programs. From aeronautical engineering and materials science to cybersecurity and AI systems, Ohio’s educational infrastructure is calibrated to meet the workforce needs of tomorrow’s defense missions.

The Proving Ground for America’s Defense Future

For aerospace and defense contractors, federal program officers, and military leaders looking to expand missions and accelerate capability, Ohio is not just a location on a map. It is a proven ecosystem — anchored by military installations and research labs, powered by a world-class industrial base and workforce, and backed by a state government and economic development enterprise fully aligned to your success.

With more than 640 aerospace and aviation firms, the nation’s most concentrated defense research infrastructure, and a workforce as capable as it is committed, Ohio delivers what every defense and aerospace program ultimately demands: the ability to move fast, build right, and win.