Washington — The paragraphs were slipped into a
massive defense bill by a Mississippi senator. Part assertion, part
plea, they are aimed at the Pentagon, and more than anything else, they
reflect the worry that Sikorsky Aircraft and other helicopter
manufacturers feel about their future.
Rather than investing in new technologies and funding a new
generation of rotary winged aircraft, the Pentagon is moving to upgrade
existing helicopters.
-snip-
Gordon Adams, a defense analyst with the Stimson Center, a
Washington, D.C., think tank, said the downsizing of the nation’s
military forces will make it tough on helicopter manufacturers – and
many other defense contractors – because procurement budgets will be cut
to fund other priorities.
“The deepest cuts will be in procurement, ” he said. “(The Pentagon)
will take the programs that it has and stretch them out, not create new
ones.”
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