Defense spending to continue in 2009

September 9, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Lockheed Martin 

Lockheed Martin’s CFO, Bruce Tanner, gave an interview to CNNMoney.com. His key point is that with either the election of Senator Obama or McCain there will be no real downturn in defense spending. Many have felt that the Democrat might slash defense spending in order to pay for the other programs he has proposed. The last two Democratic administrations, Carter and Clinton, are not well remembered within the Department of Defense due to their reduction in funding. Both of these administrations cut back heavily on spending, especially in the area of investment for new weapon systems. Read more

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Preparing for the downturn

August 18, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Congress, Department of Defense, Federal Budget Process, IT, Massachusetts, Raytheon, S&T, development program, missile defense, production program 

The Boston Herald writes today about how the various defense companies in Massachusetts are planning for the expected cuts in the defense budget with the end of the fighting in Iraq. While it is certainly expected that the US defense budget will decline beginning in FY09 with either a Republican or Democrat administration, it will probably be slow. The biggest shift will be away from Operations & Maintenance (O&M) funding to more new systems. It will also be interesting to see if the Army and Marines will get smaller after several years of growth. Obviously the biggest player in Massachusetts is Raytheon, they may be cushioned a bit, as they tend to make high-tech weapon and C4ISR systems.

For more see the article “Massachusetts companies brace for wind down in Iraq”.

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