NORFOLK, Va. — Author's note: the video above is on file from March 2021.
Virginia came out second in the country for total defense spending per state, according to a Department of Defense (DoD) report about the military's Fiscal Year 2020.
The DoD spent $64.3 billion in Virginia last year, second only to Texas, where they spent $83 billion. In the top 10 states alone, the DoD spent $593.9 billion.
In all, the DoD spent 10.8% of its total defense budget in the Old Dominion.
Virginia topped the charts in Defense Personnel Spending and came second in Defense Contract Spending, right behind Texas.
The areas that benefited from military spending were split based on purpose in Virginia – Fairfax pulled in the most contract spending, and Norfolk was listed as the leading city for personnel spending.
The top defense contractors in our state were Huntington Ingalls at $3.5 billion, General Dynamics at $1.7 billion and Northrop Grumman at $1.6 billion.
Forty percent of Virginia’s defense money went mostly to the Navy and Marines.
According to the report, defense spending ended up accounting for 11.3% of Virginia's total GDP.
The report also talked about defense spending generally, for the country. Here's the overall breakdown:
"Most contract funds went to supplies and equipment (such as aircraft, ships, weapons, and parts: 54 percent) and services (34 percent) with research and development (7 percent) and construction (5 percent) comprising the remainder. The largest portion of personnel pay was for active-duty military (46 percent), followed by civilians (40 percent), the National Guard (8 percent), and the Reserves (6 percent)," the report reads.
You can read the full report here: