After making cuts in military hardware budgets last year, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates last month took aim more directly at the Washington region's defense industry, calling for reducing spending on "support contractors" by 10 percent each of the next three years.
Hardware is fabbed in Flyover Country; this is gonna hurt!
After surging in size and profits during the post-9/11 era, the defense industry in metropolitan Washington is bracing for a major contraction and significant layoffs that economists said could produce a drag on the regional economy for years.
Marketing, administration, and R&D folks will be the first to go. Management will have to remain at full strength in case they have to expand again. |