Hawaii Wants To Form A Defense Industry 'Alliance' For Local Businesses - Honolulu Civil Beat The state hopes this alliance can leverage Pentagon spending to diversify Hawaii’s economy. Reading time: 6 minutes. Hawaii officials want to form a new organization to get more local businesses in on lucrative defense contracts — and to find ways to use military money to grow other sectors of the state’s economy. Among the challenges the alliance would plan for is a potential decrease in military spending. The plan is based on analysis by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism of the defense sector funded by a grant from the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation.