About Us

With such diverse military industry, missions, needs, and opportunities and a different stakeholder group for every aspect of an issue related to the military and defense community, it was important to the Governor and the federal Congressional delegation to convene a group of diverse military community stakeholders to come together with one voice in response to potential cuts to defense spending beginning in 2012.

Rich Hadley

President Emeritus, Greater Spokane Incorporated

With ten military related installations, thousands of military and defense works, and over 1,500 companies supporting defense work in our communities across the state, it is important now more than ever that the state come together to develop a strong strategy to protect the infrastructure, promote the industry and support workforce development that keeps our economy strong and shows Washington as the strong partner to DOD it is.

John Powers

Executive Director, Kitsap Economic Development Alliance

In response, the Washington Military Alliance (WMA) was formed. The WMA is a coalition of military and defense related stakeholder organizations, serving as an umbrella organization for the three main components of the sector representing industry, community support partnerships, and infrastructure support. This group serves a primary role as a policy advisor to the Governor, other state agencies, the Legislature, and others in support of the military and defense sector in Washington.

At the time of its formation, the group was convened primarily to collaborate on one project, the production of the Washington Military Alliance Report, which was commissioned to identify military and defense infrastructure (installations, missions, and workforce) impacts to the state and develop recommendations in response to a possible Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) action.