By Emelie Rutherford
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley called yesterday for aerospace companies to better control costs to help the Pentagon juggle tight budgets in the coming years.
His comments came at a kickoff event for a new Senate Aerospace Caucus, during which senators in turn called for the government to better plan for and work with aerospace firms.
Donley warned the Capitol Hill lunch crowd that fiscal challenges facing the nation translate to “likely pressures ahead on the defense budget.”
He said the Air Force continues to examine its internal processes trying to find more ways to control costs.
“But we also need industry to partner with us and look at their internal operations for areas that that can be improved and streamlined, so that together we can reduce costs that are passed on to the taxpayers,” Donley said.
He said “both industry and government will benefit from these reduced costs,” noting that U.S. companies are not the only ones vying for Pentagon contracts.
“Global competition alone would make it imperative for our friends in the defense industry with reduced costs, if they want to continue to be competitive in an increasingly sophisticated and capable international market for defense goods and services,” the Air Force secretary said.
Lawmakers including Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the co-chair of the new aerospace caucus, have raised concerns about foreign firms bidding on U.S. weapon-system solicitations. They would like the Pentagon to consider impacts on the U.S. industrial base when weighing contract proposals.
Donley said if the domestic firms can pare down costs the government can “invest in other defense programs much needed in the years ahead.”
He maintained the military is “working hard” to reform acquisition processes so they are more effective and efficient.
“Affordability is a key criteria in acquisition now more than ever,” he said. “In some respects the biggest threat to the defense budget is internal growth inside the defense budget. We’re working very hard to cut and control costs and we’re looking for our long-time partners in industry to help us do the same.”
The new aerospace caucus consists of 22 senators, and Co-chair Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) said at yesterday’s Aerospace Industries Association luncheon that he hopes the number doubles. Bond is retiring from Congress this year.
The caucus’ stated mission is to “ensure a strong, secure, and competitive American aerospace sector” by focusing on “education, workforce development, industrial base competitiveness, and acquisition oversight.”
The caucus will elicit ideas from “aerospace’s biggest thinkers” while pressuring the Pentagon to work more closely with manufacturing companies of all sizes, Murray said.
She said companies want a comprehensive strategy for aerospace and called for making the government a “stronger partner in developing a plan for our aerospace future.”
“That means a vision for 10 or 20 years down the road, not just in the next year’s budget cycle or next Quadrennial (Defense) Review,” she said. “It means putting in place federal policies that will increase our aerospace exports so our manufacturers have access to new markets and are competing on the same playing field internationally. And it means increasing our federal investment in innovation and research and development at our schools, and our national labs, and our government agencies.”
Murray also called for the Pentagon to make the industrial base a “critical” part of further reforming the defense-acquisition process.
“We need to look at not only how purchasing decisions are made, but also at how decisions to end a (production) line that produces a satellite or jet engine are made, because once we lose a part of our industrial base it never comes back,” she said.
Donley suggested topics for the caucus to focus on in the coming months, including export-control reform and the ratification of defense-trade agreements with the United Kingdom and Australia.