Loren Thompson also warned that the civil sector might not be around to bail out defense, agreeing with AIA’s John Douglass (see above). The trade deficit was $100 billion in 2006, reached $400 billion in 2004, is $800 billion today, and will surpass a trillion dollars in 2010, Thompson said. In the last five years, commercial manufacturing consistently has declined, “with 43,000 manufacturing jobs going away every day,” Thompson noted. “The US is de-industrializing” and this begs the question of what the nation would do to “mobilize for a prolonged conflict.”
House Panel Proposes Eliminating SDA, Space RCO
May 27, 2026
House lawmakers this week included language in their version of the fiscal 2027 defense policy bill that would dissolve two Space Force rapid acquisition organizations, absorbing their programs and potentially replicating their authorities in the service’s new portfolio-based acquisition system.