Sequestration May Hit Defense Industry Harder Than Troops

Pentagon leaders have been telling Congress for months that sequestration would have a "devastating" impact on military programs. On Thursday, officials said it could also mean hundreds of thousands of layoffs in the defense industrial base and undo what progress the Pentagon's made on driving better business deals with industry.

The Pentagon already is worried about the defense industry based on the spending cuts it's already planning for the next 10 years. The reductions mandated by the Budget Control Act reduce DoD's previously-planned budget by $487 billion over that period. Officials say they're keeping a close eye on things, including building a comprehensive sector-by-sector and tier-by-tier map of the defense industry so they can keep better tabs on the health of the industrial base.

But Frank Kendall, the president's nominee to be the new Pentagon acquisition chief, told Congress sequestration, which would roughly double DoD's cuts, would change the picture entirely.

"We've already taken $50 billion a year out of the Defense budget. If we had to take another $50 billion out, a lot of that would fall onto industry," he told senators at his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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