The Defense Department is looking “very specifically” at slowing the exodus of key talent from the aerospace industrial base, according to DoD’s senior industrial policy official.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy Brett Lambert said yesterday the Pentagon’s “single greatest challenge” is drawing young, talented engineers to aerospace and defense to counter an exodus of older, experienced employees due to retirement or budget instability.
“Most of the senior engineers we have that came into this field,” Lambert said at a Marshall Institute panel in Washington. “They’re all leaving now and there’s nobody following them because it’s not exciting.”
Lambert’s remarks echoed comments by Northrop Grumman [NOC] CEO Wes Bush, who said Wednesday decades of decline in government research and development (R&D) spending on defense in proportion to gross domestic product (GDP) has challenged the industrial base’s readiness. Bush said more than half of the company’s tech professionals in many of its core disciplines are eligible for retirement (Defense Daily, June 13).
Lambert said as part of heeding the need to attract young engineers and retain experienced talent, DoD recently terminated a program, but made a “conscious effort” to continue to employ design engineers and design teams of several different companies. Lambert said that was money well spent and DoD is now reintroducing the program and getting results “in spades.”
“That was a very effective use of taxpayer money, to keep these key personnel…in place,” Lambert said.
Lambert didn’t specify which program he referred to. Emails to a DoD spokesman for comment were not returned.
The aerospace industry has lost its appeal, Lambert said, for a variety of reasons. Lambert said programs that “never execute” and ultimately get terminated after 10 or 15 years dissuades potential engineers. Lambert said uncertain budget cycles and instability are also a driving factor. Ultimately, lack of consistency, Lambert said, makes it hard to attract key, qualified individuals.
“If you work for a contractor, (you never know) whether you will be laid off or promoted month-to-month,” Lambert said.
Lambert said he thinks, on the contrary, young engineers will be drawn to the auto industry because it has a positive outlook and employees will get to work with new and different technologies.
Lambert said the industrial base can handle the long-term ups-and-downs in spending like those that occurred after drawdowns from Vietnam or the Cold War. But because of the budget uncertainty that political action like sequestration brings–potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in across-the-board cuts over a decade–Lambert said it’s hard to plan months ahead, nevertheless years ahead.
“The last year of my life has not been talking about the future,” Lambert said. “It’s been talking about how we get through the day.”