Governor Kathy Hochul will lead a delegation of defense contractors on a trade mission to Berlin later this month and is expected to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss federal procurement plans for weapons systems — just weeks after Germany announced it would rapidly scale up its defense spending.
New York is home to many leading companies in the aerospace and defense industries such as Moog, Calspan, Rigidized Metals, Rich Products, Northrop Grumman, Schweizer Aircraft, GE Engine, BAE Systems, L-3 Communications Corp., Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon.
Many of those firms have major production plants across upstate New York, a politically important region for Hochul that has long craved for a revival of its manufacturing industry.
New York State plays a strong role in the development of aerospace and defense technologies, and the Hochul administration is supportive of accelerating the growth of the industry’s export markets.
Hochul’s trade mission could also include stop-overs in Warsaw, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Oslo, where national governments are expected to dramatically scale up their defense spending in the coming years.
“Several European governments are planning to rapidly scale up their defensive weapon systems, and their domestic producers are not going to be able to handle that volume of production that quickly,” a Hochul advisor explains. “New York’s defense contractors can help supply our European allies’ defense needs more quickly.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg are expected to join her on the trade mission.
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