Several locations surfaced repeatedly in our conversations – each with its own strategic role in the emerging defense landscape:
El Segundo, CA
A cluster of defense tech startups anchored by legacy aerospace, SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, and connectivity to San Diego’s military footprint down the coast. Several founders we met love “the gund.”
Austin, TX
A culturally magnetic hub with startups like Saronic (autonomous naval surface vessels) and OpsLab (air squadron operations software), Austin also has the Capital Factory, an accelerator that connects Texas entrepreneurs to D.C. stakeholders.
Capital Factory maintains an outpost in D.C.’s Union Market, giving founders federal proximity without needing a Beltway office.
Tulsa, OK
Tulsa is actively campaigning to be the Drone Capital of the World. The region has built a drone ecosystem to do it – from Skyway Range flight testing, to drone-as-first-responder deployments, to converting local manufacturers into drone suppliers.
Florida
Multiple assets anchor Florida’s defense base — Panhandle shipbuilding and aerospace, U.S. Central Command in Tampa, and spaceport infrastructure at Cape Canaveral.
Savills’ Ken Biberaj also pointed to Miami, which is home to eMerge, an annual dual-use summit for Florida with a similar goal as Utah’s Zero Gravity Summit.
Rhode Island
A quietly potent maritime-defense cluster, home to Anduril, VATN Systems, and HAVOCai – built on New England’s deep underwater-warfare heritage.
Huntsville, AL
Another week of Standard & Works reporting meant another round of Huntsville being name-checked in conversations – from its legacy aerospace roots to its PhD concentration, the city’s gravitational pull keeps widening.
