Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
“I want you.” It’s the ubiquitous advertisement from World War I. Uncle Sam is pointing his index finger forward, seemingly pointing at everyone to step up and serve. Illustrator James Flagg designed the iconic Army recruiting poster.
It’s time for Indianapolis business leaders to take that poster and its message to heart. No, I’m not suggesting that you head to your local recruiting office. (I’ll save my pitch to join the U.S. Marine Corps for another time.) But we all can serve our country by offering our goods and services for sale to the U.S. Department of Defense.
It should come as no surprise that DOD has enormous buying power, with a budget nearing a trillion dollars. If the department were a country, it would be the 19th-largest economy in the world.
Industry leaders like Rolls Royce, Raytheon, Vertex and V2X all have impressive facilities in the city. Statewide, we have companies like AM General, L3Harris, General Dynamics and SAIC doing significant business in Indiana.
Indiana has millions—even billions—of dollars in revenue and jobs to be gained by participating more widely in the defense sector. However, our state’s participation does not just benefit Hoosiers. Our national security is at stake.
“The U.S. is in one of the most dangerous situations since World War II,” said John Keast, staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, who was speaking at U.S. Rep. Jim Banks’ Northeast Indiana Defense Summit in Fort Wayne in August. “The threat environment is real. Deterrence is the key.”
Deterrence comes from using every available innovative resource to defend our nation. Weapons systems are necessary, but the vast resources required in this modern era include capabilities derived from new cyber platforms, drone technology and even the pharmaceutical industry—Eli Lilly and Co. ranks as one of the top Indiana suppliers of goods to DOD.
“We need to be on a wartime footing,” said Chris Kubasik at the Northeast Indiana Defense Summit. Kubasik is CEO of L3Harris, the sixth-largest defense contractor in the nation and employer of some 600 workers in Indiana.
Many Indiana businesses can do business with the Defense Department. If the product or service you’re selling falls into critical technology areas—including trusted AI and autonomy, microelectronics, space technology, advanced computing and software and biotechnology—the DOD should be on your list of target markets. If your product or service is commercially available and you’re ready to sell, teaming with a prime government contractor—or multiple other non-traditional contractors—is a great way to get your foot in the door. If you still need some research and development, the government will often fund these activities in a non-dilutive fashion.
We are fortunate to have a premier Navy laboratory just 90 minutes from Indianapolis. Naval Surface Warfare Crane is one of just a handful of federal labs working on some of the toughest national security challenges, including microelectronics and hypersonics.
Crane Army Ammunition Activity recently announced it is seeking more public-private partnerships. And the Indiana National Guard has globally recognized training and testing facilities like Mascatatuck Training Center and Camp Atterbury.
The presence of our military installations coupled with Indiana’s great research universities makes our state ripe for innovation and defense-related economic development.
Flagg, the turn-of-the-century illustrator behind the “We Want You” ad, designed another poster in 1917. More than a hundred years later, its message couldn’t be more relevant. It reads, “Together We Win” and features two members of the military walking arms linked with an American tradesman. Indeed, if our business community and military work together seamlessly, like in World Wars I and II, once more, together we win.•
__________
Dodd is a retired Mustang Marine infantry officer and has been advising private companies, academia and the government in defense-related matters for more than two decades.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.