Where's the DOD budget request?
Posted by John McHale
Spring is here, baseball season is around the corner, the Masters is only a couple weeks away as is the Easter Bunny, but still no sign of the detailed budget request for Fiscal Year 2010 from the Department of Defense (DOD).
During the Bush administration we could count on seeing it in February, but still nothing out of the Obama White House on a specific release date. Yes, he is busy with the economic stimulus package and on a 60 Minutes interview the other night he said Iraq is the least of his problems -- so that could be why.
Instead of waiting on the president, I called the press office at the DOD and a gentleman told me that he could not give a specific date at this time, but he thinks it should come out by mid to late April.
We'll see...
Many of the people I talk to at defense prime contractors are quite anxious to see what funding is going to be available. The delay in release is causing delays in their planning for next year.
I've asked them where they think funding will be targeted next year and the typical response is "your guess is as good as mine."
The stories in the press about Obama potentially cutting back on major programs such as the F-22 also has many employees at Lockheed worried about their jobs as a cutback in production would most likely translate to layoffs.
We'll keep you posted on the release date and when it does come out we will provide coverage on what it will mean for the defense electronics industry.
So stay tuned.
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
