Communications & Defense
Our communications and defense contracting industry assists with endeavors at home and abroad.
From telecommunications and print publications here in Fort Wayne to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a limitless number of projects your company can tackle in this area.
Indiana invests heavily in information technology (IT) infrastructure. The state's fiber optic network is among the best in the nation. Verizon Communications (now Frontier Communications Corp.) has recently invested $100 million in a FTTP (Fiber to the Premise) program in Fort Wayne.
In 2005, the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) effort handed down a decision to retain the 122nd Fighter Wing presence in Fort Wayne and also made the addition of 300 defense jobs.
| Major Employers |
| Frontier Communications Corp. |
1,400 |
| ITT Exelis |
1,203 |
| Raytheon Systems Co. |
1,040 |
| BAE Systems Platform Solutions |
960 |
| Navistar International Corp. |
500 |
| IN Air National Guard, 122nd Fighter Wing |
423 |
| AT&T |
373 |
| Stuart Manufacturing |
210 |
| Riverside Manufacturing |
150 |
| General Dynamics C4 Systems |
75 |
| For a more extensive listing of communications & defense employers with additional detail, please visit our Major Employers page. |
| Annual Average Wages By Occupation, 2011 |
| |
Allen |
U.S. |
Allen/U.S. |
| Computer Software Engineers, Applications |
$78,458 |
$90,168 |
87.0% |
| Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software |
$79,414 |
$96,616 |
82.2% |
| Electrical Engineers |
$82,971 |
$86,258 |
96.2% |
| Electronics Engineers, Except Computer |
$83,845 |
$91,541 |
91.6% |
| Mechanical Engineers |
$67,891 |
$80,579 |
84.3% |
| Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technicians |
$50,440 |
$55,411 |
91.0% |
| First-Line Supervisors/Managers of Production & Operating Workers |
$54,517 |
$55,141 |
98.9% |
| Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers |
$33,488 |
$30,680 |
109.2% |
| Team Assemblers |
$29,058 |
$28,850 |
100.7% |
| Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers |
$33,342 |
$34,840 |
95.7% |
| Source: EMSI Covered Employment - 2011.4 |
Defense Opportunities
In August 2009 Partners In Contracting Corporation established the Procurement Technical Assistance Center for the Northeast Indiana Region. The center is a resource providing assistance with all aspects of marketing to federal, state, and local governments. It is a not-for-profit organization and there is no fee for most services. PICC-PTAC is partnered with the Northeast Indiana Defense Industry Association with a goal of forward identifying and strengthening the defense cluster supply chain.
For more information on PICC-PTAC visit www.PICCorp.org or contact Gil Perry at the PTAC office in Fort Wayne at 260-481-0491.
Future Growth in Defense for Allen County
Lilly Endowment Inc. will provide $20 million to an affiliate of the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne to accelerate the development of northeast Indiana's workforce and talent resources. The program, entitled Talent Initiative, will develop education, training and talent initiatives in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The Initiative - an unprecedented collaboration in northeast Indiana - will better prepare the region's workforce to capture the high-quality job opportunities available in the near term and those of the future.
Components of the Talent Initiative include support for the following critical initiatives:
- Retraining at least 1,200 adult workers in northeast Indiana over the next three years
- Enhancement of the Advanced Manufacturing program at Ivy Tech - Northeast
- Expansion of the systems engineering and wireless technology programs at Indiana University-Purdue University- Fort Wayne (IPFW)
- Creation of New Tech High Schools within school corporations in northeast Indiana, with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses
The Talent Initiative includes significant and targeted educational and workforce programs for the aerospace and defense industries. One immediate goal is to prepare workers to assume more than 4,000 projected new and replacement jobs in these industries. The programs also will be relevant to the workforce development needs of other advanced manufacturing sectors in northeast Indiana. Northeast Indiana is home to over 160 defense/aerospace prime contractors and suppliers. During 2005 and 2006 the six largest firms in this sector received a total of $2 billion in prime contracts from the Department of Defense.