The US defense industry will still enjoy “large and fairly stable markets” domestically even with projected flat or declining defense budgets in coming years, said Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s deputy acquisition executive. “It should be clear that while we anticipate significant change from the environment of the last decade or so, the sky will not fall on our defense industry,” stated Kendall Tuesday in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s emerging threats panel. He added, “We do not foresee a precipitous decline, like the one that the department and industry experienced at the end of the Cold War” since “we are not seeing a fundamental change in the national security situation.” Kendall said the Defense Department still expects that “market forces [will] be the primary mechanism by which industry responds” to coming changes. DOD will only intervene “in rare exceptions” when it deems it necessary to protect critical capabilities or ensure competition, he said. Per President Obama’s directive, the Pentagon is launching a comprehensive review to identify additional efficiencies and areas of potential cuts over the next 12 years. Kendall said the industrial base will be a factor in that review.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.