Defense Spending

It’s been a slow build, but 2012’s crop of GOP candidates have finally begun to stake out their positions on the defense budget. And apart from the decidedly confused Ron Paul — who seems to think that the State Department and Pentagon are the same thing — the group seems to be generally pro-military spending, defying the doom and gloom scenarios that many were expecting.

It’s no secret that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a troubled program. Over the past 10 years, the price of Lockheed Martin’s cutting-edge stealth aircraft has shot up 64 percent, while sales projections have continued to slide. Indeed, foreign countries that once fell over themselves to join the multinational F-35 program are now showing far less enthusiasm for the $120-150 million plane.

The defense industry is suffering from something of a crisis of confidence. With people in D.C. and around the country using military spending as a proverbial political piñata, the reaction from within the defense community has been, to say the least, underwhelming.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s acquisition! Well, not quite, but acquisition is undoubtedly a critical element for any defense company’s business strategy. And understanding this process is all the more important in light of Secretary Carter’s new wave of initiatives.