Gates Wants $100 Billion: Why Now?

The cost-savings and overhead reduction initiative Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is pushing has industry listening, and it only makes sense.  Does the Secretary see his legacy in play?  Perhaps.

After a decade of record-high defense spending, a spending downturn is all but inevitable, barring an impending war with Iran or having to back up Japan or South Korea in a scuffle with the North.

The heart of the matter is an excess in defense industrial capacity which has accumulated as a natural consequence of ten-years worth of increased defense spending.  

Time Keeps On Slippin’ Into The Future

See if you can connect my title with this Reuters article where Secretary of Defense Gates says Iran is one to three years away from a nuclear weapon and the trailing Small Faces video.

DoD Buzz: Obama Loses House F136 Vote

Of course the loss wasn’t the President’s, it was Secretary Gates’. The F136 is the General Electric/Rolls Royce engine for the F-35; the F135 is the Pratt & Whitney engine.

I don’t understand the heartburn: I thought we were supposed to have competition in our acquisition programs.

The numbers on the F136 vote were almost identical to the House vote to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which FWIW, was supposed to be considered after the DoD completed its DADT study.