The aerospace and defense industry makes “significant economic and financial contributions” to the nation’s economy, according to a new Aerospace Industries Association-commissioned report. “The data speak for itself. America’s aerospace and defense industry is a sector that punches far above its weight,” said AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey. New York auditing firm Deloitte assembled the report, which estimates that US aerospace and defense companies generated $324 billion in sales revenue in 2010 and directly employed more than one million workers, while creating another two-and-a-half million indirect jobs and induced employment. This industrial sector is the number one contributor to the country’s positive trade balance, at a net $42 billion, states the report. The industry is also the nation’s largest net exporter and accounts for 2.23 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, states the report. AIA asserts that the report illuminates the essential role that the industry plays in the nation’s economic vitality and warns of the potentially devastating consequences that additional steep defense cuts would have on it. “Over one million American jobs and the security of our nation are at stake,” said Blakey. (AIA release and full report; caution large-sized file.)
RTX, parent of Raytheon, Collins and Pratt & Whitney, is getting out of the space prime business and focusing on its "strengths" as a maker of space sensors, buses, and components, company COO Chris Calio said during an earnings call.