Locating local defense contractors
U.S. Army photo
Whether it’s their bread and butter, or a sideline, more local companies than you may realize are involved in selling goods and services to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Here’s how to find them: Visit USASpending.gov and under the “Spending” dropdown menu click “Contracts.” Over to the left there’s a very handy searchable database.
If you have a specific company in mind, you can enter it and see what pops up. If not, you may sort contracts by state or by congressional district.
This search will get you a list of top contractors in the selected state or district, as well as dollar amounts and the Top Five products or services sold. All sorts of other data is charted on this summary page; keep it in mind for print and online graphics.
To narrow your search, click the tiny “Get list of transactions” link above the pie chart. That’ll take you to a grid listing agency, contractor, dollar amount and other interesting data. From there you can hone your story angle to focus on a specific company, industry or type of contract.
Be sure to read the “About” and “Related resources” pages too; they provide more background and links to other sources of federal contracting data. It’s an enormous field and keeping abreast of laws, regulations and statistics could become a full-time job.
If you’re fortunate enough to be or work with a CAR reporter, these sites can generate powerful enterprise pieces. But if you’re just sticking a toe in, they still can function as the portal to meaty biz features and lead you to companies and sub-contractors you didn’t know existed.
Angles could range from the purely financial to jobs and careers packages to interesting features on technology and profiles of engineers, inventors and others involved in cutting-edge military research.
Check with your state’s economic development unit, too. Here, for example, is a Missouri publication (PDF) that rounds up a variety of background information and statistics.
The National Defense Industrial Association is a nationwide trade and lobbying group; its Web site links to local chapters and its journal, National Defense Magazine, is online and ripe with blogs, links, articles and other fodder for generating story ideas.
DefenseNews.com is a publication related to the Military Times periodicals and can help you with insight into current programs and issues.
Dec 3, 2009
Locating local defense contractors
It’s not the cheeriest of story springboards, but the revived attention this week to our wars overseas, and news that more troops soon will be deployed to Afghanistan, has me thinking about defense contracting.
Whether it’s their bread and butter, or a sideline, more local companies than you may realize are involved in selling goods and services to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Here’s how to find them: Visit USASpending.gov and under the “Spending” dropdown menu click “Contracts.” Over to the left there’s a very handy searchable database.
If you have a specific company in mind, you can enter it and see what pops up. If not, you may sort contracts by state or by congressional district.
This search will get you a list of top contractors in the selected state or district, as well as dollar amounts and the Top Five products or services sold. All sorts of other data is charted on this summary page; keep it in mind for print and online graphics.
To narrow your search, click the tiny “Get list of transactions” link above the pie chart. That’ll take you to a grid listing agency, contractor, dollar amount and other interesting data. From there you can hone your story angle to focus on a specific company, industry or type of contract.
Be sure to read the “About” and “Related resources” pages too; they provide more background and links to other sources of federal contracting data. It’s an enormous field and keeping abreast of laws, regulations and statistics could become a full-time job.
If you’re fortunate enough to be or work with a CAR reporter, these sites can generate powerful enterprise pieces. But if you’re just sticking a toe in, they still can function as the portal to meaty biz features and lead you to companies and sub-contractors you didn’t know existed.
Angles could range from the purely financial to jobs and careers packages to interesting features on technology and profiles of engineers, inventors and others involved in cutting-edge military research.
Check with your state’s economic development unit, too. Here, for example, is a Missouri publication (PDF) that rounds up a variety of background information and statistics. 
The National Defense Industrial Association is a nationwide trade and lobbying group; its Web site links to local chapters and its journal, National Defense Magazine, is online and ripe with blogs, links, articles and other fodder for generating story ideas.
DefenseNews.com is a publication related to the Military Times periodicals and can help you with insight into current programs and issues.
