A guide to military business in N.C.: billions in defense contracts are up for grabs each year and not just for planes, trucks and tanks.

• Position: DEPLOY

If you don't live near Fayetteville, Jacksonville. Havelock or Goldsboro, you might not realize the scope of the military's presence in North Carolina. It's a big state, and its major military bases are clustered in the East. But if you run a Tar Heel company and are interested in growing your business, it makes good commercial sense to learn more about the state's military operations and connect with their contracting officers. Plenty are doing so: Businesses in 99 of the state's 100 counties snagged 8,253 defense contracts worth $2.3 billion in 2011. In this special section, we examine areas of opportunity, including sustainability and green construction, simulation gaming and biomedicine. Did you know, for example, that the Army is...