- Parent / corporate of record
- United States Army
- Type
- federal installation
- Address
- Fort Knox, Kentucky 40121
- Employment
- ~22,000 on-post military and civilian personnel
- Established
- 1918
- Website
- https://home.army.mil/knox
Fort Knox is a U.S. Army installation straddling Hardin, Bullitt, and Meade counties about thirty miles south of Louisville. It is headquarters to U.S. Army Human Resources Command (HRC), U.S. Army Recruiting Command (USAREC), and U.S. Army Cadet Command — three of the Army's largest command headquarters, all consolidated on post following the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure round. The on-post workforce runs about 22,000 military and civilian personnel, making Fort Knox the second-largest single employer in Kentucky after UPS Worldport and the dominant anchor of the Elizabethtown-Radcliff labor shed. Its federal procurement footprint moves roughly $5.45 billion across a three-year window — most of it place-of-performance dollars routed through national primes — with the realistic small-business lane running through FAR 52.219-9 subcontracting plans held by construction MATOC holders and through utility-privatization contracts with Hardin-area utilities.
Recent capital investment
- $5.45B (2023-2026 window)
Three-year federal procurement footprint at the Fort Knox place-of-performance — about 3,552 awards across 434 awardees. Roughly 96 percent is place-of-performance spending rather than Hardin-vendor revenue; the locally-headquartered share runs near $210 million across Hardin County Water District No. 1, Nolin Rural Electric, and a Grayson County construction firm performing on base.
- $66M (2023-2025 awards)
M.A. Mortenson (Minneapolis, MN) Fort Knox multiple-award task-order construction (MATOC) awards under NAICS 236220, with FAR 52.219-9 small-business subcontracting plans that create flow-down work for Hardin-area specialty trades.
- $53M (2023-2025 awards)
P&R JV Fort Knox MATOC awards under NAICS 236220 — a second federal construction prime running an active subcontracting plan on base.
- $169M (2023-2026 window)
DoD Fort Knox utility-privatization contract held by Hardin County Water District No. 1 — the largest unambiguously-local award in the three-year window and a reference benchmark for utility-privatization continuity on the installation.
Mentioned in these county reports
Procurement notes
Operators contract with Fort Knox primarily through SAM.gov registration and the Department of Defense procurement portals. The installation's largest dollars run through federal primes (SourceAmerica, SAIC, Peraton, CACI, Nakupuna, IBM, Booz Allen, Mortenson, P&R JV) — most are out-of-state-headquartered, so place-of-performance dollars at Fort Knox should not be confused with Hardin-vendor revenue without SAM.gov awardee-headquarters verification. The practical local entry path for specialty trades runs through FAR 52.219-9 small-business subcontracting plans held by the construction primes; on the state-procurement side, the Carl M. Brashear Radcliff Veterans Center HVAC re-procurement (subject of Legislative Research Commission Research Report No. 502) runs through the Kentucky Finance & Administration Cabinet's Division of Engineering & Contract Administration. Base-access work additionally requires installation pass-and-permit clearance through the Fort Knox Visitor Control Center and, for civil-works adjacencies, coordination with the USACE Louisville District.