Area Development Q3 2026 Issue Preview

Reserve space in the Q3 2026 issue while aerospace and defense investment decisions are actively being made.

Aerospace and defense have moved from the margins of site selection to its center — driven by reshoring, national security priorities, and a defense industrial base racing to rebuild domestic capacity. Area Development's Q3 2026 issue puts that shift under a corporate-investment lens: how manufacturers, suppliers, states, utilities, and workforce systems are competing for the next wave of aerospace and defense investment.

The issue is guest edited by Jeff Troan of Vista Site Selection, a nearly 50-year veteran of the aerospace industry with deep relationships across the defense industrial base. Troan is assembling contributed articles from a bench of active operators and decision-makers — manufacturing and prime-contractor executives, site selection advisors, energy providers, and former senior military leadership — writing directly from where these investment decisions actually get made.

The issue also carries Area Development's signature annual feature — the Top States for Doing Business survey — giving the aerospace and defense coverage a natural companion story on which states are actually positioned to win this business.

Why It Matters

Aerospace and defense now sit at the intersection of national security, reshoring, supplier reliability, skilled labor, infrastructure, and power availability — the same forces driving nearly every major site selection decision today. The Q3 issue connects those forces to the practical calls companies and communities are making now: where to invest, where to expand, and which states are positioned to compete.

Dates to Know