Sequestration had a broad impact on the Defense Department, hurting combat readiness while increasing or deferring the cost of some weapons programs, a government watchdog agency said.
A Government Accountability Office report released this week found $37.2 billion in defense spending cuts that began in March 2013 hit the operations and maintenance budget hardest, accounting for more than half the reduction (55 percent).
It was followed by procurement (26 percent), and research and development, testing and evaluation (16 percent) -- all key spending areas at Wright-Patterson, headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command and the Air Force Research Laboratory.