Republican lawmakers are using increasingly sharp rhetoric to argue against additional cuts to defense spending, warning the military will cede its technical edge, manufacturing will further erode and conscription will return/…/Republican lawmakers are not alone in using sharp language. Industry executives say their firms likely would soon lack the work to retain an ability — and workforce — to design new combat systems. For instance, James Albaugh, Boeing’s commercial aviation chief, told reporters last month that there could soon come a time when few weapons manufacturers have the in-house engineering brainpower to design a new combat aircraft from scratch.
The possibilities of industrial design atrophy might not stop there, according to a Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments report released late last month.“It is not unrealistic to foresee a day in which the U.S. defense industry no longer possesses the design or production capabilities for certain weapons systems,” the CSBA wrote. “Indeed, this has already happened to the United Kingdom in the case of nuclear attack submarines.”