Rapid Fire Feb. 18, 2013: Pressure Tactics

• Gordon Adams, a budget staffer during the Clinton administration, is convinced the Pentagon has plenty of room for backoffice cuts, but thinks the recent announcements are driven by pressure politics:

“[DoD and the services] decided to go forward with the most horrendous things they could think of due to consequences of the sequester. The timing that they chose was as one secretary was leaving and the other secretary was wounded in battle, congressional battle; in other words, perfect time for the chiefs to assert themselves. So, they did.”

• The Pentagon’s pressure might be aimed at Congress, but small businesses in the ship repair industry are sure feeling it too.

• The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) tracker of sales by the top 100 weapons manufacturers (excluding Chinese ones) shows a 5% drop of their combined revenue to $410B. 44 US firms amount to 60% of the total, followed by 30 companies from Western Europe with 29% of sales.