http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/defense-sector-braces-for-self-amputation-85491.html?hp=f2
Sequestration or not, the defense industry is bracing for a bad decade.Contractors are hoarding cash. Top firms are eyeing potential mergers. And old alliances are cracking. Even senior Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees acknowledge a shrinking military is inevitable as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan after more than a decade of war.Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, has said the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction plan should act as a starting point in negotiations to rein in the federal deficit.The plan, designed to produce a balanced budget by 2015, would require steep cuts in military spending, calling for an end to such big-ticket programs as the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, the V-22 Osprey and the Marine Corps variant of the F-35 Lightning II.
if it's true the right wing saying we are the big dog in the yard how much bigger do we get? the bigger the dog the bigger the poop it leaves behind.
Against this backdrop, military commanders and industry executives are positioning themselves to survive the coming “period of austerity,” as Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos has described it, which could result in mergers, layoffs and other cost-cutting measures.
“I’m going to have to make some really hard calls,” Amos said in an interview in his Pentagon office, explaining that further cuts could force him to cancel or scale back major weapons programs, such as the JLTV. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to afford that,” Amos said of the service’s plan to buy 5,500 of the tactical vehicles. “The juice might not be worth the squeeze.”
Defense insiders are cautiously optimistic Congress will act to avert sequestration, which would reduce Pentagon spending by about $55 billion during the current fiscal year. For them, the real problem is what comes next.
all the bluster and we can still blow up half the earth are they shooting for th other half and the moon? if they want more fire power open the warehouses that store all the tots they've never used congress payed for it use it instead of collecting rust.
