DoD Prime Contract Awards

Pierce County is the acknowledged leader when it comes to numbers of uniformed personnel assigned to a local defense installation. But other communities are typically thought to have a defense (civilian) industry that contributes more to the local economy.

So, leaving aside the payrolls of uniformed and even civilian DoD personnel, what community in the state has received the most Prime Contract Awards? The obvious answer is King County at $2.3+ billion, and not just because of Boeing, which builds more than commercial airliners. Many other companies contribute too.

Kitsap County is most everyone else's candidate for second largest beneficence by virtue of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyards. According to the most recent report (2006), Kitsap County received just over 1/2 billion dollars, the bulk of that from the Navy.

But assigning Kitsap a ranking of #2 is wrong. Coming in with $753+ million in Prime Contract Awards is Pierce County. Pierce County is also diversified among the services. Here's the allocation:

• Army dollars: 449,211,814
• Navy dollars: 10,483,222
• Air Force dollars: 101,607,230
• DLA* dollars: 179,267,621
• ODA* dollars: 11,903,448

DLA: Defense Logistics Agency ODA: Other Defense Agency

And, Kitsap wasn't even third; behind Whatcom at $608+ million. Was that a single year aberration? We'll look at historical trends for that question in an upcoming blog.