From Grumman and Republic Aviation to today's network of precision manufacturers, avionics houses, and defense suppliers, New York has always built the hardware that keeps the nation flying. LIFT is the advocacy organization dedicated to keeping it that way — representing the interests of the aerospace and defense industrial base across Long Island and New York State before educators, regulators, and policy makers.
The industry's future depends on a steady pipeline of machinists, avionics technicians, and manufacturing engineers. Our flagship 3000 by 30 initiative aims to keep 3,000 students in aerospace and defense training programs, producing 1,500 workforce-ready graduates per year by 2030.
Small defense suppliers want to protect sensitive information — but compliance mandates sized for prime contractors can overwhelm a small machine shop. Our proposal to the Pentagon's CMMC Reform Task Force: let small manufacturers certify to approved reference designs, the way aircraft parts are certified.
SEC disclosure rules written for publicly traded corporations — conflict minerals reporting and climate and energy disclosures — flow down the supply chain onto private small businesses that were never meant to bear them. And ITAR registration fees keep rising while providing no way to verify who can lawfully receive controlled data. We want the flow-downs eliminated and the fees made to buy something useful.
Good policy starts with good data. We aggregate economic indicators, employment figures, and industry research on New York's aerospace and defense sector so business planners and policy makers can act on facts.
Aerospace and defense manufacturing anchors thousands of high-wage, stable careers that do not require a four-year degree or long-term student debt — careers that let young New Yorkers build their futures at home. But other states are competing aggressively for this industry, in part by growing their own workforces and lightening the regulatory load. Companies move to where they can find employees and operate sensibly. New York must respond deliberately, or risk ceding these high-value capabilities permanently.