Rapid Fire September 26, 2012: Emerging Export Pitfalls

Sep 26, 2012 10:00 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff

Sikorsky announced on Monday that they would close their Military Completions Center in Big Flats, NY, by the end of the year. That facility was developed in 2007, following the acquisition of Schweizer Aircraft in 2004, to prep Black Hawk and Naval Hawk helicopters for Foreign Military Sales. 570 people will lose their jobs in the process.
Daniel Goure at the Lexington Institute asks a very salient question: how much risk are US companies taking by betting heavily on sales to Asia and the Middle East? He is focused on potential political disruptions, but economic concerns should not be dismissed as casually as he does. In recent months growth has markedly slowed down in China and India, among other emerging markets that face heavy imbalances.

Alan F. Estevez was selected by the Obama administration for the position of Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. He has been ASD Logistics & Materiel Readiness since August last year, following a series of Army and OSD transportation and supply chain jobs. Pending Senatorial confirmation as always.

Peter W. Singer of the Brookings think-tank wrote a series of entries for Time that belittles the impact of sequestration by showing the big size of the US defense budget relative to other countries. While it is a valid point, the short selected timeframe (2012-13) is curious given the inherent inertia and strategic depth of defense budgets, and the 10-year planned impact of the Budget Control Act. Singer does acknowledge that China’s budget is both opaque and rising, but seems oblivious to the fact that spending from America’s allies in Europe has been moribund for years and is likely to collapse given their overwhelming fiscal and demographic constraints. A more dynamic, longer-term perspective is necessary to properly frame budget discussions, beyond this year’s snapshot.

The Pentagon told Foreign Policy that they saw no sign of Iran’s self-reported missile test in the Persian Gulf yesterday. In retaliation, Iran will likely announce a salvo of 32 ICBMs from brand new homegrown cutting-edge UAVs, the whole thing using technology that is so stealthy that nobody will, again, notice.

Our occasional lampooning of the Government Accountability Office’s taste for meta reporting has been topped by the Ig Nobel Prize, who granted GAO a Litterature prize “for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.” Close enough to the actual material.

Categories: China, Daily Rapid Fire, People, United Technologies, USA

Rapid Fire September 26, 2012: Emerging Export Pitfalls

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