The defense industry will receive special treatment as it looks to ride out the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, thanks to a lobbying push from powerful associations that represent the nation's defense contractors.

On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security declared workers employed by companies in the defense industrial base to be “essential to continued critical infrastructure viability,” according to guidance issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

[Undisclosed delays plague atomic programs, cost billions to fix]

This paves the way for 2.5 million workers in the defense industry to stay on the job, even as local and state governments implement travel restrictions and require people to stay home.