Defense industry acknowledges likelihood of Pentagon budget cuts

[unhappycamper]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/defense-industry-acknowledges-likelihood-of-pentagon-budget-cuts/2012/12/04/d923be4e-3d6b-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html

Defense industry acknowledges likelihood of Pentagon budget cuts
By Marjorie Censer | Capital Business, Published: December 4

As negotiations to avoid a year-end “fiscal cliff” drag on, some defense industry executives have begun to acknowledge that avoiding significant cuts to weapons programs may be impossible over the long term.

Weapons makers have spent months fighting a $500 billion hit to the Pentagon’s budget that would go into effect if President Obama and Congress cannot come to an agreement to avoid a set of automatic spending cuts and tax increases. The Pentagon has said sequestration, as the budget cuts are known, would force them to buy fewer F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, Stryker vehicles and Army medium tactical vehicles as well as slow other programs and military construction projects.

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The large national debt poses a threat to national security, so reductions in defense spending are likely, he said. But it’s important that any reductions take into account the national defense strategy, said Langstaff. (Langstaff’s firm TASC provides technical services such as systems engineering to the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.)

Defense industry executives are having “the wrong conversation,” he said. “We are talking a good game, but are still unwilling to park short-term self-interest.”