Defense Acquisition Research Journal #109

The ‘Shrinking’ Defense Industrial Base

include the former having a higher proportion of small contractors; a lower proportion of sole proprietorships; a lower proportion of service providers and a higher proportion of Research and Development providers; and a higher proportion of contractors in the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services industry.

TABLE 7. SURVEY SAMPLE AND THREE DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE GROUPS ACROSS FIVE CHARACTERISTICS

Study Survey Sample ( n = 679)

DIB Small

DIB Presumed Exits ( n = 83,175)

DIB Remaining Contractors ( n = 48,476)

Variable

Characteristics

Contractors ( n = 95,834)

Small Business

83.80%

n/a

74.46% 69.94%

Size

Other than Small Business

16.20%

n/a

25.54% 30.06%

Northeast

17.38% 15.62% 14.68% 14.51%

Midwest

16.20% 16.48% 15.97% 14.64%

South

35.64% 41.38% 36.99% 39.61%

Location (region)

West

24.30% 25.01% 22.85% 22.46%

Island Areas*

0.44% 1.00% 0.93% 0.73%

International

6.04% 0.51% 8.56% 8.03%

Not Classified

0.00% 0.01% 0.02% 0.01%

Corporate (not tax exempt)

54.20% 55.98% 43.91% 64.93%

Corporate (tax exempt)

4.12% 0.77% 2.65% 4.50%

Foreign government

0.00% 0.00% 0.05% 0.08%

International organization

0.88% 0.00% 0.92% 1.54%

Organizational Type

Partnership

8.69% 10.32% 8.53% 11.31%

Sole proprietorship

4.86% 9.58% 8.31% 7.63%

U.S. Government entity

0.44% 0.00% 0.97% 1.95%

Other

6.33% 5.94% 6.39% 6.72%

Not Classified

20.47% 17.40% 28.26% 1.33%

Research and Development

10.60% 7.09% 5.85%

7.16%

Commodity

Products

46.98% 44.78% 45.59% 37.62%

Services

42.42% 48.12% 48.56% 55.22%

Continued on the next page

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Defense ARJ, Summer 2025, Vol. 32 No. 2: 194—223

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