CSBA in the News

Shrinking Defense budgets and strategic uncertainty combine to risk depleting the national security industrial base to the point where key contractors might no longer be counted on as vital links in the Pentagon’s supply chain, says a coming study.

The U.S. Department of Defense must take a long-term view when deciding what programs to adjust or prune as a result of the federal sequester and other budget cuts or risk its defense contractors losing critical capabilities and expertise, a defense think tank argued Tuesday.

It is the same debate that resurfaces after every post-war defense downturn: Should the Pentagon take preemptive action to protect select companies from economic collapse?

In 1947, two years after the end of World War II, the VA spent a post-war high of $87 billion, according to a Congressional Research Service report released last year. VA spending reached a post-Vietnam peak of $76.9 billion in 1976, the research service said. Both budgets were adjusted for inflation and compared to 2011 dollars.

Each morning for the last week, at 7:45, more than a dozen White House aides have mustered in the corner office of President Obama’s chief of staff, Denis R. McDonough, to get their marching orders for what has become the most intense, uphill lobbying campaign of the Obama presidency.

Todd Harrison, a budget analyst, estimated a higher total, with a week-long strike costing between $500 million and $1 billion. The total would depend on the selected targets, bombs and the delivery methods used.