Q3 Recap: Ohio’s Aerospace & Defense Advantage

I am pleased to provide this recap of JobsOhio’s Q3 2025 Public Board of Directors meeting, held at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland. Our location was symbolic and strategic: Northeast Ohio is home to NASA Glenn Research Center and the Armstrong Test Facility, anchors of America’s space program and vital to Ohio’s growing Aerospace & Defense leadership. Together, we reflected on Ohio’s remarkable momentum, celebrated historic wins, and outlined how JobsOhio 2030 will position our state to lead in emerging trillion-dollar industries.

Full Q3 2025 JobsOhio Board Meeting webcast below.

Ohio’s Economic Leadership: A Proven Turnaround

Since 2019, Ohio has emerged as a national leader in economic competitiveness – a transformation validated by independent third parties:

• Top 5 nationally for total projects and projects per capita every year since 2019.
• #2 or better in Site Selection’s Global Groundwork Index for infrastructure, capital investment, and job creation over the last seven years.
• #2 in megaprojects for three consecutive years.
• #5 in CNBC’s Top States for Business 2025, #1 in the Midwest – a leap from #34 before JobsOhio was created.

Behind these rankings are real results: more than 273,000 new jobs since JobsOhio was founded, reversing decades of decline and driving Ohio’s first sustained population in-migration since the 1980s.

Generational Opportunities, Historic Wins

The past five years have secured historic project wins that are turbocharging our state’s economy:

• Anduril – the largest job creation project in Ohio history, with 4,000 new jobs and $900M in investment.
• Intel – the largest capital investment in state history, with $28B committed to semiconductor manufacturing.
• Joby Aviation – the largest aviation project in Ohio history, producing eVTOL aircraft in Dayton.
• Honda/LG Energy Solution – the largest onshoring investment project in Ohio history, building the EV battery future here in Ohio.

These megaprojects build on Ohio’s small business investments, Vibrant Communities program, and site development initiatives, ensuring growth is both transformational and spread across the state.

JobsOhio 2030: Let’s Grow, Together

This year, we launched JobsOhio 2030: Let’s Grow, Together, our five-year strategic plan built on the success of JobsOhio 2.0. Our mission: keep Ohio #1 in the Midwest and among the top five states nationally for high-quality jobs, resilient growth, and broad-based prosperity through six strategic pillars:

• Build on Intel’s catalytic investment and make Ohio the nation’s semiconductor powerhouse.
• Harness artificial intelligence across industries for measurable impact.
• Strengthen and expand Ohio’s skilled talent pipeline.
• Unite our Innovation Districts under the Ohio Discovery Corridor to amplify research, startups, venture capital, and federal funding.
• Leverage Ohio’s abundant energy resources as a competitive advantage.
• Lean into Ohio’s brand promise: you can “Have it all in the heart of it all.”

The Rise of Super Sectors

One of JobsOhio 2030’s boldest strategies is the development of Ohio Super Sectors – trillion-dollar industries converging into hyper-growth ecosystems. Ohio is positioned to lead in five:

1. Semiconductors & Microelectronics
2. Advanced Aerospace & Defense
3. Life Sciences + Biotech
4. Artificial Intelligence
5. Ohio Energy Leadership

Spotlight: Advanced Aerospace & Defense

Among these, Advanced Aerospace & Defense (A&D) is already a national differentiator. This global market exceeds $3 trillion, and Ohio is competing – and winning – at the very top.

Kevin Chambers, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Managing Director for Military & Federal, Aerospace & Defense, and Logistics at JobsOhio, joined us to go deeper on why:

(Timestamp: 16:47)

• Military & Federal: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Air Force Research Lab and a dense contractor network anchor national security work, while a dense supplier network with and around them extends ties between military missions and commercial industry. Military and federal activity supports an estimated 418,000 jobs statewide and represents about $55 billion in total economic output, roughly 5.9% of Ohio’s economy.
• Space: NASA Glenn andthe Armstrong Test Facility give Ohio unique test assets linking research and manufacturing and reinforcing Space Force Intelligence missions.
• Advanced Air Mobility: The global Advanced Air Mobility activity is projected to create $1.9 trillion in economic impact by 2045. We’re looking to land at least $13 billion of that here in Ohio, which should generate 15,000 direct hire jobs.
• Commercial Aerospace: Commercial aerospace is one focus area where Ohio is already the proven workhorse. We’re the top U.S. supplier state to Airbus and Boeing, with more than 600 aerospace firms anchored by GE Aerospace and other prime suppliers. So, when OEMs ask, “Who can actually build at this rate?” Ohio raises its hand with receipts.

Ohio is the only place where defense readiness, aerospace manufacturing expertise, and next-generation flight sit shoulder-to-shoulder. From hypersonics to autonomous drones to flying taxis, global leaders like Joby, Anduril, GE Aerospace, and SNC are proving that innovation takes flight in Ohio.

NASA Glenn: Anchoring Ohio’s Space Leadership

The NASA Glenn Research Center and Armstrong Test Facility together support 8,000 Ohio jobs and $2 billion in economic impact every year. These world-class facilities provide unique assets in propulsion, hypersonics, and space environments, making Ohio indispensable to NASA’s return to the Moon and future missions to Mars.

Just as important, Team Ohio is united in protecting and expanding NASA Glenn’s mission. Over 200 independent jurisdictions in Northeast Ohio have rallied behind NASA Glenn – a remarkable show of collaboration in a home-rule state. This bipartisan coalition, joined by our federal delegation, is actively advocating in Washington to secure and grow Glenn’s critical expertise and operations.

On the Global Stage

Ohio’s leadership was on full display at the Paris Air Show, the world’s largest aerospace gathering. Standing-room-only panels featured Ohio companies explaining why they chose our state as their launchpad. I was honored to join CEOs from Joby, Beta, Wisk, and Archer alongside the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to announce new international standards for advanced air mobility.

The message was resonant: Ohio is the only place where you can dream it, build it, test it, and deploy it – and when we tell that story with one voice, the global aerospace community listens.

Our Secret Sauce: Our Advisors

Ohio’s Aerospace & Defense strategy is strengthened by the counsel of distinguished national leaders, including:

• General Buzz Moseley, former Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force
• General Lester Lyles, former Commander, Air Force Materiel Command and Chair, NASA Council for the National Advisory Council,
• Lieutenant General Thomas Owen, former Commander, Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB
• General John “J.T.” Thompson, former Commander, U.S. Space and Missile Systems Center
• Jim Free, former Director of NASA Glenn and Associate Administrator at NASA
• Colonel Joe Zeis, Senior Advisor for Aerospace & Defense to Governor DeWine

These advisors – representing decades of leadership at the highest levels – lend immense credibility to Ohio’s efforts and ensure our state remains the most military- and veteran-friendly in the nation.

Looking Ahead: Ohio’s Time

From the Wright Brothers’ first flight in Dayton to Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, Ohio has always been where innovation takes off. Today, as we lead in Advanced Aerospace & Defense and other Super Sectors, that legacy continues.

Our point is clear: when it matters, you make it in Ohio. With Team Ohio – from local communities to federal partners – aligned and moving forward, we’ll keep turning headwinds into lift and opportunities into lasting prosperity.

Thank you for your continued partnership. Let’s Grow, Together.

Very respectfully,

J.P. Nauseef

President & Chief Executive Officer

JobsOhio