Todd Harrison, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, suggested the defense industry will be a bit more insulated than the Pentagon in event of a shutdown, especially if it's only for a short period.
"If the contracts have already been awarded, they can continue to work on them even in a government shutdown," Harrison said. "Of course, the problem is, all of the offices to process invoices and to award new contracts and things of that nature, and the customer themselves, they won't be at work."
The contract process will grind to a halt if the government shuts down, Harrison added. And even when Congress passes a continuing spending resolution, he said, money will be tight.
"If it's a short shutdown, the impact on the defense industry will be probably negligible," he said. "But if the shutdown continues for several weeks, then it could start to have an effect."
And for an industry that is just now starting to feel the sting of sequestration, Harrison said there's really no way to make the most of a shutdown. "I don't think there's a whole lot they can do other than brace for impact," he said.