Tag Archives: Lockheed Martin

Economy Grew at 2.5 Percent in 1^st Quarter, Amping Fears of a Stalled Recovery

Ylan Q. Mui (@ylanmui) and Marjorie Censer (@CommonCenser), Washington Post. The sequester cuts haven’t really settled in yet, most federal employee furloughs are only just starting, yet the 1^st quarter economic data is already showing a slowed growth from expectations. Gross domestic product grew at annual rate of 2.5% for the first three months of the year thanks to an 11.5% annualized drop in military spending. This makes it two quarters in a row of massive defense cuts and represents the steepest declines in military spending since the Korean War. Things simply won’t…

2014 DoD Budget a Step Toward ‘Grand Bargain’

John T. Bennett (@BennettJohnT), Defense News. The Obama Administration issued its 2014 budget last week including a $526.6 billion request for the Pentagon that ignores sequestration and mandatory limits set by Congress. There is a lot of slicing and dicing of the various numbers this week but the general consensus is that the request is really a political move to build the foundation for a hoped for “grand bargain” fiscal deal with the House Republicans. Within the budget is a call for another round of base closings and full funding for the F-35 but most see it as an…

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…

Congress’ Budget Games Mean Less Cash, More Chaos for Pentagon

Spencer Ackerman, Wired.com Danger Room. In one of the most disheartening press conferences in memory last Thursday, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Marty Dempsey laid out the immediate steps the Pentagon would take to make precautionary cuts based on the chaos in Congress. Without any real assurance that sequestration cuts won’t kick in on March 1, the DoD has little choice but to start taking drastic measures including docking ships, grounding aircraft and bringing training to a grinding halt, while contracts are suspended and civilian employees placed on furlough. While Congress and the president…

U.S. Senators Demand Explanation for ECSS Failure

Aaron Mehta, Defense News. The Senate Armed Services Committee wants to know what happened to a billion dollar Air Force program that was supposed to revolutionize parts and equipment management for the service. Instead it’s being called one of the biggest acquisition failures in recent memory after a review found that the billion dollars already spent would need another billion dollars and a delivery all the way back in 2020 before it would be fielded, leading to its termination. Now the service has lost a key part of its effort to face a full audit in 2017 without anything to show for the effort…