They’ve marched in from far and near. STRICOM out of Orlando, Fla., came to Central Texas to offer technical assistance and resources training.

The presence of Fort Hood has spawned a healthy regiment of defense contractors that maintain substantial operations in Central Texas. In all, the U.S. government annually averages grants totaling around $250 million to nearly 100 private defense-related companies that are working on projects for the Fort Hood installation.

Opportunities for Growth

“The Army post is certainly the economic driver for the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan area, and defense contractors are a big part of what Fort Hood is all about,” says Bill Parry, executive director for the Heart of Texas Defense Alliance. “In addition, all the growth has brought in new businesses ranging from restaurants to retail to hotels.”

Companies such as Science Applications and Westar Aerospace & Defense Group Inc., each with 1,000 employees, are just two of the many contractors with a large worker population that arrives on the base each day.

“General Dynamics Land Systems is a big-name company at the installation, and BAE Systems has several contracts they are working on for Fort Hood,” Parry says. “DynCorp International is another one with their expertise in aviation maintenance. The list of names is long and impressive.”

Easy Transportation Access

Parry adds that Fort Hood is an excellent place to do business because Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport is on the installation, and a superior highway system makes it easy to move goods to and from markets such as Austin, Dallas and San Antonio.

“There is also easy highway access to the Oklahoma and Mexico borders as well as to the Texas port cities,” he says. “Fort Hood is important in many ways – most importantly for our country’s defense.”

The base first opened in 1942 and is the largest military installation in the world with 53,000 military and 5,100 civilians employed on site. Fort Hood currently provides an economic impact of $11 billion annually to the Texas economy, with about $10 billion of that total going toward military and civilian payroll.

The installation also contributes to the economy when soldiers are discharged from the base because many decide to remain in the region. A 2009 Heart of Texas Defense Alliance survey shows that 31.6 percent of soldiers completing service would prefer to stay in the area, with the area defined as anywhere within 30 miles of Fort Hood.

“That’s a very high percentage,” Parry says.

So what is it about Central Texas that makes them want to stay?

“Every soldier has a different story, but a lot is the national economy,” Parry says. “Unemployment is lower in Texas than the rest of the nation as a whole. It's very much more stable in this metropolitan statistical area.”