Category Archives: defense industry

F-35’s Ability to Evade Budget Cuts Illustrates Challenge of Paring Defense Spending

Rajiv Chandrasekaran (@rajivwashpost), Washington Post. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the most expensive weapon system in history and in these times of budget cuts it manages to survive relatively unscathed in spite of problems since the very beginning of the program. Chandrasekaran takes an in depth look at how the design of the program with concurrent fielding while it’s still being tested has virtually locked the program into development after over $84 billion has already been sunk to the aircraft. Throw in the old classic of building the aircraft using suppliers in 45 different states and…

Spending Cuts Threaten Military Town’s Businesses

Parija Kavilanz (@ParijaKavilanz), CNN Money. There are ten thousand stories about sequester and its effects this week. The bottom line is that it was officially put into effect by executive order on Friday evening directing some $85 billion in cuts across a wide swath of the federal government by September. But the real effect is already being felt by small businesses like those highlighted in this story in Colorado Springs where orders for everything from cotton rags to maintenance on aircraft have all been cut back putting jobs and entire companies at risk. The next big fight will be the actual…

Hagel on Track to Narrowly Win Confirmation as Defense Secretary

Paul West (@paulwestdc), Los Angeles Times. Congress returns from its 10-day “Presidents Day” recess and will likely take up a confirmation vote for Secretary of Defense nominee and former Senator Chuck Hagel on Tuesday. With several Republican Senators having declared their support for the embattled nominee it appears he has enough votes to be confirmed. It has been a contentious fight and many pundits are calling him politically damaged by the fight but all of this becomes relatively moot as sequestration kicks in on Friday. At that point attention turns to a political budget battle that was almost completely…

UAE Signs $1.4 Billion Defense Contracts, Including Drones

Stanley Carvalho, Reuters. The United Arab Emirates provided some good news to the beleaguered defense industry with orders totaling over $1.4 billion this week that included 750 MRAP’s from Oshkosh Defense and an undisclosed number of unarmed Predator UAV’s from General Atomics. Both deals offer glimmers of hope as defense firms focus on Middle Eastern nations facing a growing threat from Iran and instability in the region. There is a growing urgency in the region for unmanned aircraft as systems to patrol large swaths of largely uninhabited terrain and sea approaches to countries and more manufacturers focus their efforts in the…

Double Whammy for Pentagon

David Rogers, Politico. While much of what little public focus there is about impending defense cuts focuses on the sequestration train wreck set to come crashing into the station on March 1, it’s actually a double tap situation for DoD as they struggle now under a Continuing Resolution as well. The CR was put into effect last summer as political cover for the parties in an election year and is set to expire on March 27, but if the past is any guide it will likely extend to the whole year as Congress once again kicks the can on a budget decision. The CR leaves funding…