Egypt Shows Why Foreign Arms Sales Won't Sustain The Defense Industrial Base

In 2012, the Department of Defense received $118 billion for weapons procurement. Next year, it will receive less than $100 billion — a lot less if the deficit-cutting mechanism called sequestration again kicks in.

Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg News revealed last week that sequestration could drag down budget authority for weapons procurement by another 16% from the administration’s already reduced 2014 request, to a figure somewhere in the mid-eighty billions.

With weapons spending falling like a rock, Pentagon policymakers are scrambling to find ways of protecting the defense industrial base.

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