San Diego is home to the biggest military complex in the United States. And while the homeland defense contracts are not yet in, the $9.9 billion defense industry is looking at a burst of business that could get it close to its 1993 high of $10.3 billion.

“That was the peak,” says Kelly Cunningham, head of the economic research bureau at the San Diego Regional Chamber. “It slumped a bit when the Navy downsized. It has definitely come back.”

That’s good news for the more than 185,000 San Diegans who directly draw a paycheck from military spending.

In 2000, 23 of San Diego’s top defense contracts were worth a combined $3.6 billion. Defense industry businesses are confirming an increase in contracts and production. Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., a global aerospace and defense company, has about 900 employees in Rancho Bernardo and reports seeing an increase in contracts over the last two years.

“We do unmanned vehicle systems at this facility and we’re doing extremely well,” says Cynthia Curiel, Northrop Grumman spokeswoman. “The systems we are using are on the cutting edge of what the defense industry is calling the transformation. They are making a transformation over the entire technology and kinds of systems, and as a result of that we are at the right place.”

Since Sept. 11, the success of the Global Hawk, which was put to the test in Afghanistan, has led to an increase in work and an expansion that called for more office space. The corporation recently added 51,698 square feet to its existing 240,000 square feet and expects to hire an additional 400 employees. Northrop Grumman is a defense company working in full partnership with military customers. San Diego is home to more than 3,000 of the company’s employees. It is relationships like these that continue to bolster the San Diego economy and shield it from overall hardship in the economic downtime felt by other cities during this time of fallout from the terrorist attacks.

The Titan Corp., a provider of information and communications systems programs and services to the Department of Defense, intelligence agencies and other federal government customers, also employs thousands in San Diego and reports an increase in workload. Recent Air Force contracts valued at about $30 million not only ensure future workload of the company, but the employment of its staff. In turn, their paychecks are spent and added to the local economy.