Era of Uncertainty

There is no doubt sequestration would “immediately” lead to a severe disruption of the defense supply chain and significantly higher costs—a double-edged sword that may inevitably dog essentially all Defense Department acquisition programs, said Steve Cortese, senior vice president of Washington operations for ATK. “Even if sequestration is a one-time event, it will be very hard to recover from the more expensive” program costs, said Cortese on June 27 during a Senate Aerospace Caucus staff discussion on Capitol Hill. This era of uncertainty is forcing some persons to turn away from the defense business altogether, leading industry experts to fear a more significant brain drain in the not-so-distant future, he said. “It makes it almost impossible for us to help DOD and NASA to plan for [sequestration],” said Cortese.