The aerospace industry isn’t a “fat cat” and shouldn’t be targeted for tax hikes and cutbacks, Aerospace Industries Association president Marion Blakey said Wednesday. Speaking at an industry lunch in Washington, D.C., she claimed that the “top five companies combined” in the US aerospace sector “are one-half the size of Wal-Mart” in terms of sales, and argued that the industry shouldn’t be disproportionately targeted for “inappropriate” budget cuts. The huge positive contribution that aerospace makes to the nation’s balance of trade suggests that the industry should be allowed to continue to offer its share of “prosperity” to American workers, she said. Foreign military sales “will contract if we’re forced to close production lines,” Blakey asserted.
The cost of the nuclear AGM-181 Long-Range Stand Off missile has come down slightly and the program is on track, but several technologies it relies on are still considered immature, the Government Accountability Office found in a report. Meanwhile, the GAO also assessed the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile as…