This month marks our fourth anniversary as the National Defense
Industrial Association. As the saying goes, "time flies when
you are having fun." We surely have come a long way during
the past four years. We integrated two organizations that, while
similar in purpose, had significantly different modes of operation–and
we’ve taken the best attributes of ADPA and NSIA and blended
them into NDIA.
I hope you agree that the merger was the right thing to do for
both our members and for our mission of supporting the defense industrial
base. We are a much stronger and more prominent association as a
result.
By the way, there is a clarification about our name that needs
to made. The "I" in NDIA stands for "Industrial"
rather than industry or industries. This differentiation is significant
because we have both individual citizens and industrial corporations
as members. More importantly, we are advocates for the defense industrial
base, rather than for industry in general or for any group of industries.
But enough about the past, better to look ahead to see where we
are going.
First, NDIA is actually a family of associations, as can be seen
from the diagram on this page. We have three affiliated associations:
NTSA, focused on training and simulation; AFEI, concentrating on
electronic commerce and electronic business, and WID, providing
networking and career development opportunities for women in the
defense community.
Our plans for the future at NDIA include: