- The annual Utah Aerospace & Defense Day on Capitol Hill connects industry leaders with lawmakers.
- The aerospace and defense industry represents a major slice of Utah's economy.
- Deep tech leaders say Utah is a prime spot for business because of its well-educated workforce.
Visitors to Utah’s Capitol Hill on Wednesday may have thought they had drifted into some type of futuristic, deep-tech fever dream.
Spread across the rotunda was a showcase of technological innovation from the aerospace, defense and national security industries — including AI, robotics, space exploration materials and virtual flight experiences.
Wednesday’s event was the annual Utah Aerospace & Defense Day on Capitol Hill — offering opportunities for scores of Utah-linked companies to connect with Utah lawmakers and the public.
The gathering also signaled the symbiotic relationship between Utah’s economy and the ever-evolving aerospace/defense industry.
Hosted by aerospace and industry group 47G — a Utah network of over 200 members and a variety of local academic institutions — Wednesday’s gathering included dozens of exhibits from aerospace and defense companies.
Counted among the exhibitors were industry heavyweights such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems — along with Utah-based companies such as Fortem Technologies, Vector, Torus and the vertical takeoff and landing aircraft company ElectraFly.
47G President and CEO Aaron Starks told the Deseret News that entrepreneurs are the “lifeblood of Utah’s economy.” There are over 330,000 small businesses in the state.
“What we want to do is convene founders within the aerospace and defense/national security and technology space and allow them to show lawmakers every year why this industry matters so much.”
And it matters a lot, added Starks.
“Through direct, indirect and induced efforts, this industry accounts for 500,000 jobs in the state,” he said. “For every job that’s created in aerospace and defense, it creates another 1.8 in the economy somewhere else.
“It’s in everyone’s best interest to have a thriving aerospace and defense industry in the state. So we work very hard to convene partners. … We want to showcase technology — and we want to show the House and Senate why this is so important.”
Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, calls the aerospace and defense industry “a cornerstone of our state’s economy” and a boon for Utah families.
“It represents nearly one-fifth of our economy, supports hundreds of thousands of high-quality jobs and brings in about $100 billion to our economy each year,” said Adams in a 47G release. “We have a responsibility to be good stewards of this strength by investing in our people, keeping Utah competitive and building the infrastructure our future depends on.”
Starks spoke of the vastness of the ecosystem being showcased Wednesday at Utah’s Capitol. When many think of “aerospace and defense,” he said, they often cling to the second word: Defense.
“But aerospace, in and of itself, covers satellites, communication systems, radar systems and transportation,” he said. “Think about everything that Boeing does right in this state: it’s manufacturing, it’s advanced materials, it’s composites.
“Think about Delta Airlines and its pilot operation and training facility. The fastest growing hub for Delta anywhere in the United States is Utah.”
Becoming a national hub for drones, space travel and critical minerals
Starks points to Utah’s century-old connection to the defense/aerospace industry. That evolved into the state’s involvement in the space industry. Now companies such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing and L3Harris Technologies are major industry players in Utah.
“Utah has a thriving economy. ... There’s great workforce access. It all places us right in the crosshairs of a lot of national security technology companies,” added Starks.
Additionally, he said, Utah remains a friendly place to do business for aerospace/defense companies. “The speed at which you can work here is faster than any other market in the United States.
Looking ahead, Starks envisions Utah securing a spot on the national forefront of industries such as Advanced Air Mobility. “We will show the world how to move people, parcels and packages via electric aircraft.”
Utah, he added, will become one of the first inland states in the country to host a spaceport — including locales in the state where rockets and space vehicles could be launched and recovered.
Meanwhile, the Beehive State will be a key player in the extraction of the sorts of critical minerals that are snagging today’s headlines.
Why are deep-tech companies landing in Utah?
L3Harris Technologies employs thousands of Utahns, generates billions of dollars locally and develops a variety of technologies including communication systems, missile defense and unmanned systems.
Bruce Black, an L3Harris Technologies systems engineer, said Wednesday that Utah makes for an ideal locale to operate because of its highly educated populace.
“There’s a lot of emphasis in the culture on education — so it’s a gold mine for a tech company to come here and gobble up all these smart kids coming out of college,” he said.
Mark Hanna is the founder of Aeromega, a recent Utah startup company that develops technology enabling longer flight duration for drones.
“The industry is obviously evolving rapidly,” he said Wednesday. “People see what’s going on in current events, worldwide. Our technology is what will be part of U.S. drone dominance.”
Hanna said he opts to operate in Utah, in part, because of its unique collaborative, peer-to-peer environment.
“The idea of the ‘common good’ is something most people understand and want to work for,” he said. “Utah has a great business environment. Politically, it’s very friendly to businesses, especially young businesses like ours. And it’s a wonderful place to raise a family.”
Mark Gaspers, a director of state and local government operations for Boeing, pointed to the global aerospace corporation’s almost century-old link to Utah.
The state, he said, supports the company’s workforce.
“We’ve had phenomenal support from universities, from state government and from local governments that really understand what it takes to build a manufacturing workforce — and have that skill set and depth and investment in education,” said Gaspers.
“That’s critical to us as we continue to look to the future.”
