Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program

The Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program is designed to support long-term community investments that strengthen national security innovation and expand the capabilities of the defense manufacturing industrial ecosystem. 

The Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program is authorized under Section 846 of the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which enabled the Secretary of Defense to establish a program to designate and support consortiums as defense manufacturing communities to strengthen the national security industrial base. This program was developed in coordination with the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Industrial Base Policy (formerly known as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy) and the Under Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering. 

The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation manages this program on behalf of the Department of Defense. A total of $80 million has been allocated ($80 million in the previous three fiscal years, and $30 million in Fiscal Year 2023) to 17 Defense Manufacturing Communities to assist over 2,200 defense businesses and 38,000 workers. This program currently assists: 

• More than 1,050 small and medium size companies to receive guidance on entering the defense sector; 
• Development of 41 new defense technologies/ products; 
• Improvement of 90 defense technologies/ products; and 
• Enhancement of cybersecurity capabilities of 440 companies. 

The funding and technical assistance provided through the program enhances a region's ability to narrow gaps and address needs in defense manufacturing in the areas of:  

• Critical skills 
• Facilities 
• Research and development  
• Small business support 

The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation hosted an informational webinar to review the goals and objectives of the Notice of Funding Opportunity and answer questions from interested respondents. Click here view the webinar video and here for the webinar slides.

Please sign up for email notifications about our FY23 DMCSP Program or our other programs here.

Click here to view and download the Fact Sheet for The Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program.

On September 25, 2023, the Department of Defense announced the award of 6 grants totaling approximately $30 million under the Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program by the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. These awards followed a competitive selection process culminating in the designation of these communities as “Defense Manufacturing Communities” by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy on August 16, 2023.

The awards derive from Fiscal Year 2023 appropriated funding and leverage an additional $10,934,491 in non-Federal funds for a total investment of $40,841,366 to make long-term investments in critical skills, facilities, workforce development, research and development, and small business support in order to strengthen the national security innovation base. 

The grant awards are as follows:

Applicant: Regents of the University of Michigan
Consortium: The Michigan Defense Resiliency Consortium 
State: Michigan
Focus: Energy storage and batteries

$4,997,965 to the Michigan Defense Resiliency Consortium to undertake a $6,302,965 project to create the critical foundation for energy storage and battery manufacturing necessary to support the Department of Defense’s rapid transformation from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles and beyond by leveraging federal and state investments, and providing a series of technical assistance, technology acceleration, and workforce training initiatives. 

Applicant: The Curators of the University of Missouri
Consortium: The Missouri Defense Manufacturing Community Consortium
State: Missouri
Focus: Castings and forgings

$4,999,950 to the Missouri Defense Manufacturing Community Consortium to undertake a $7,875,486 project to create a pipeline of engineers and tradespeople skilled in the usage of modern digital advanced manufacturing technologies applied to the Department of Defense priority area of castings and forgings.   

Applicant: Cornell University
Consortium: The New York Consortium for Space Technology Innovation and Development
State: New York
Focus: Space

$5,000,000 to the New York Consortium for Space Technology Innovation and Development to undertake a $6,814,586 project to address the need for advanced defense space technology manufacturing and supply-chain capabilities by fostering collaboration among universities, research institutions, industry experts, and government agencies in New York State for the space technology sector.

Applicant: Empire State Development Corporation
Consortium: The New York State Microelectronics Defense Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Workforce Consortium
State: New York
Focus: Microelectronics

$5,000,000 to the New York State Microelectronics Defense Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Workforce consortium to undertake a $7,809,500 project to address challenges in the microelectronics industry by strengthening talent pipelines, cultivating an innovation ecosystem, and enhancing local supplier resilience in New York State.

Applicant: The Manufacturers’ Association
Consortium: The Central Pennsylvania Defense Shipbuilding Talent and Innovation Defense Ecosystem
State: Pennsylvania
Focus: Shipbuilding

$4,908,960 to the Central Pennsylvania Defense Shipbuilding Talent and Innovation Defense Ecosystem to undertake a $6,137,444 project to support the U.S. Navy’s national security goal of increasing production from one to three submarines annually by supporting a sustainable pipeline of skilled defense specific talent and increasing adoption of production automation by the submarine industrial base. 

Applicant: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Consortium: The America’s Additive Foundry Consortium
State: Texas
Focus: Castings and forgings, digital manufacturing

$5,000,000 to the America’s Additive Foundry Consortium to undertake a $7,526,385 project to secure a U.S. supply of tactical alloys through additive, hybrid, and intelligent manufacturing to address casting and forging supply chain issues facing the U.S. military by developing and providing technical support for novel materials and processes, offering certificate/training programs, and serving as a regional tech demonstration hub. 

For the Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program, a consortium must be the applicant. A consortium can be comprised of the following organizations and various combinations of the following: academia, defense industry, defense industry and association-led organizations, non-profit organizations, and/or state and local government organizations. 

The consortium must demonstrate regional collaboration capabilities and technological and/or industrial base supply chains that are determined to be critical to national security.  

Proposals should be submitted by a “Lead Organization” on behalf of the regional manufacturing consortium. Eligible Lead Organizations are state, local or tribal government organizations, non-profit or private non-profit institutions. 

During open competition periods, the general application process is as follows: 

Step 1: The consortium must apply for and receive designation as a Defense Manufacturing Community. Proposals will be evaluated according to the eligibility and scoring criteria listed within the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in Grants.gov.  

Step 2: Upon receiving the above designation, the consortium will be invited to submit a grant application for funding. The grantee must contribute at least 20 percent of the total project cost toward the project. The activities eligible under this program may include: 

• equipment or facility upgrade 
• workforce training, retraining, or recruitment and retention, including that of women and underrepresented minorities 
• business incubators 
• advanced research and commercialization, including with Federal laboratories and depots 
• supply chain development 
• small business assistance 

See Grant Terms and Conditions  for more information on financial assistance requirements. 

For information on past grant awardees, please click here.

Connecticut Defense Manufacturing Community, a FY20 grantee of the Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program, recently produced a Model Based Technology guidebook as an output of the Digital Model Initiative (DMI), a program designed to accelerate the adoption of 3-D design and manufacturing technology throughout Connecticut’s defense supply chains. Connecticut’s Chief Manufacturing Officer Paul Lavoie explains the value of the DMI at the state and national level here: