New York's aerospace and defense manufacturers are well organized. There are trade associations, regional manufacturing consortia, workforce partnerships and supplier networks, and each does real work for its members. But today those groups compete with one another for the same small grants.
LIFT proposes the opposite: agree on a common goal, present it together with one face, and ask for a directed program with more resources than the industry can absorb.
Small programs pit good organizations against each other: one group's grant is another group's rejection letter. The coalition aims for the opposite problem. The goal is to secure more resources than the industry can absorb, so no group has to win at another's expense, and the hard question is not "who gets it" but "how do we, together, put it all to use." That kind of money only comes when the whole industry asks for it at once.
General support for "manufacturing" or "the defense industrial base" is easy for officials to give and easy to forget. What moves is a program: a named initiative with a clear purpose, a budget line, an agency to run it, and results that can be reported back. A program is far more likely to be funded when the whole industry asks for it in the same words than when each group asks for its own version.
The coalition, not LIFT, would choose its goals. As a starting point, these are areas where LIFT already sees broad agreement across New York's aerospace and defense supply chain:
A funded pathway to train and place the machinists, inspectors and technicians small suppliers cannot find. 3000 by 30 is one example of a program built this way: a number, a date and a plan.
Practical help for small suppliers to meet CMMC without spending more on assessment than on protection.
Reducing reporting requirements that flow down to small private businesses with little benefit.
Common numbers on costs, capacity and workforce that planners and policymakers can rely on. Today the state's statistics count about 2,500 aerospace jobs on Long Island; the industry counts about 28,000.
The first ask is for the coalition itself: the resources to turn shared goals into a finished, costed, signed proposal quickly. The plan is built to move fast, on a fixed calendar of working sessions with a sign-off date set at the start.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Core staff and contracted support | $700,000 |
| Input from educational institutions (capacity, cost and curriculum) | $450,000 |
| Data, drafting, legal and organizational setup | $300,000 |
| Convening and travel (Albany, Washington) | $150,000 |
| Reserve for additional rounds of discussion | $400,000 |
| Total | $2,000,000 |
LIFT would serve as convener and staff: scheduling, drafting, assembling data and keeping the effort moving. The coalition belongs to its member groups. LIFT does not seek to lead, absorb or speak over any of them.
What this is not
This page describes a proposal under discussion. No organization is listed as a participant until it has agreed to take part.