[UPDATED and CORRECTED Jan. 31 at 3:45 pm Shipbuilders’ Council Says Job Loss Numbers Are Estimates And Not Official Council Numbers] WASHINGTON: For anyone who believed those who have claimed that defense cuts don’t affect “real” jobs or the economy, today appears to be a sobering day. At Tuesday’s general meeting of the Shipbuilders’ Council… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Political gridlock has gotten so bad that the best bet to stop sequestration is after it starts, Rep. Mac Thornberry believes. Only a real crisis — not just an impending one — can force the two parties to cut a deal, he told Breaking Defense. But, the conservative Republican emphasized, he stuck to the… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: While the House has voted to extend the debt limit to May, the automatic federal spending cuts called sequestration still loom $90 billion large, half that bill for the Pentagon alone. Yet, as fourth quarter earnings calls begin, the defense industry and its stock values remain remarkably resilient. What gives? Or rather, what isn’t… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: Martha Roby is not a guy, but she is a Republican — and now, the chair of the most politically charged panel of the biggest committee in the Congress. Roby is not the only House GOP woman in a leadership position. One woman holds a full committee chairmanship in the GOP House. Rep.… Keep reading →

The pundits are reading the tea leaves and the critics sharpening their knives. What would Chuck Hagel be like, really, as Secretary of Defense? If you want to understand how the SecDef-apparent thinks, however, it’s hard to do better than to look at his own words. Read them carefully, and it becomes clear that the… Keep reading →

Rising Republican star Sen. Kelly Ayotte said her “libertarian” and “isolationist” Senate colleagues who would cut defense spending to help solve the budget deficit have abandoned the principles of conservative icon Ronald Reagan. Speaking at the conservative American Enterprise Institute late Wednesday afternoon, the junior Senator from New Hampshire said that “with the issues that… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON:A quick look at what the Democratic national security establishment thinks about the National Defense Authorization Act now moving through the House. Here’s what the progressive National Security Network (whose board includes Wes Clark and Samuel Burger, among others) says in a posting about the bill: The House version of the NDAA breaks last summer’s… Keep reading →