defense industry

Greater Omaha is home to Offutt Air Force Base which houses USSTRATCOM, U.S. Air Force Weather Agency and the 55^th Wing of the U.S. Air Force. As such, Greater Omaha has become a space defense hotbed, emphasizing key components of the base’s core missions — including cyber-security, anti-terrorism and weather assessment and measurement.

• Greater Omaha has a cluster of over 50 defense-related companies dedicated to global security by providing services ranging from protecting the homeland to managing government information systems for crucial operations such as at Offutt Air Force Base, United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), and the Air Force Weather Agency.

• The Peter Kiewit Institute’s (PKI) new supercomputer attracts defense industry projects and PKI is certified by the NSA; the school provides highly trained students with security clearances to industry for work on our nation’s most vexing problems.

• The Global Innovation and Strategy Center’s (GISC) unique partnership between business, government and education stimulates innovative courses of action and comprehensive strategies to respond to global threats against the United States in support of USSTRATCOM.

• Greater Omaha boasts a community of over 40,000 with ties to military missions housed at Offutt Air Force Base, generating an annual economic impact on Greater Omaha exceeding $1.6 billion. In the past few years, the defense community has grown by more than 1,200 jobs.

• In a unique partnership with the 55^th Wing, the Nebraska National Guard maintains an operationally significant presence by directly supporting missions at Offutt Air Force Base. The unit’s motto of “Global Readiness” illustrates its support of the 55^th Wing’s worldwide command and control, treaty verification and intelligence, as well as surveillance and reconnaissance flying operations.