Big cuts in U.S. defense programs seen looming - Reuters

Big cuts in U.S. defense programs seen looming
Reuters News 10/17/05
author: Andrea Shalal-Esa
(C) Reuters Limited 2005.

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Major U.S. weapons programs are facing big cuts given mounting budget pressures from the war in Iraq, rising fuel and personnel costs, and the need to rebuild the U.S. Gulf Coast, defense analysts said on Monday.

The military services -- the Air Force, the Navy and the Army -- are drafting lists of programs that could be cut back before the White House's Office of Management and Budget issues its guidance to the Pentagon in mid-November.

War is bad for the defense business. Oh sure the contractors who serve food, or perhaps hire our mercenaries do OK, but the defense companies that build weapon systems don't - period. It is really tough to sell a new, unproven weapon system to the pentagon when the troops are at war and they need bullets and water. That billion dollar bomber sounds good - too bad it only exists on paper, and will take ten years to develop and then build. No, the government doesn't buy a whole lot of new development programs with a war on... Just a whole lot of bullets and water.

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