Aerospace and Defense

Accelerate Colorado works with federal leaders to preserve and enhance the state’s aerospace, defense and cyber assets in order to strengthen and protect the Colorado and United States economies.

The aerospace and defense industry is a crucial component of Colorado's technology economy.  Also, because of Colorado’s geographical location, it provides one-bounce satellite communications to Europe and Asia, and because of our Mountain Time Zone Colorado companies can efficiently conduct business with both continents during the same business day.

According to the Colorado Space Coalition, Colorado has approximately 24,740 private-sector aerospace and defense workers in nearly 120 companies that develop launch products, GPS instruments, space vehicles, and satellites to name a few.   If you add suppliers and related businesses, Colorado has 163,000 workers in more than 400 businesses statewide. In fact, aerospace and defense employment grew 6.5 percent in the state from 2005 to 2010; the national growth for the same period was 2 percent.

Colorado is home to four key space military commands: Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/U.S. Army Forces Strategic Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM).  Buckley Air Force Base, Peterson Air Force Base and Schriever Air Force Base all have space-related missons. 

Accelerate Colorado's 2011 Aerospace and Defense Asks

• Accelerate Colorado asks for your continued support of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program.  The program directly supports more than 1,000 high-tech jobs in Colorado, and thousands more indirectly.
• Please support President Obama’s FY 2012 budget request for the Missile Defense Agency Programs, with emphasis on fully funding the Ballistic Missile Defense Midcourse Defense Segment known as the Ground Based Missile Defense (GMD).
• Accelerate Colorado supports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) request for $1.06 billion in FY 2012 to support the development of the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS).
• Accelerate Colorado supports the protection of the state’s military and aerospace assets that include:
• Buckley, Peterson and Schreiver Air Force Bases
• Ft. Carson US Army Installation
• Global Positioning System Operation Control Segment (GPS OCX)
• Federal laboratories such as NOAA, NREL and NCAR
• Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR)
• NNSA infrastructure improvement programs

For a full description of Accelerate Colorado's Aerospace and Defense Asks and Background, please click on the full report in the Download section.