ADT on steroids is what this thing is. |
Do they think that the current defense budget will sustain Northrop Grumman as a viable competitor over the next 10 years? An $8 billion company cannot survive in a world of $40 billion companies. |
From their point of view, it is not a matter of [convincing] Congress, it is a matter of, if they don't understand me the first five times I'm just going to say it louder the 6th through 10th. |
The Department of Defense is being eaten out of house and home by health care costs. More retirees are going with military medicine, Congress is allowing more National Guard and reservists to enter (the VA system) and the costs are rising. You have to say if you are going to have this kind of ballooning in PTSD benefits, a review is appropriate. |
The F-22 does more than any other fighter has ever done. |
The money was not inconsequential before, and has become quite substantial. They're looking at non-college-bound high school graduates. Getting this kind of money is significant. They get a job, a steady paycheck and enough for a down payment on a brand new car. |
The prior reviews had a certain sense of cover-ups than an honest full-fledged review. It's essentially to raise it a notch from a standard review to a now criminal review. When you have people taking testimony under oath, it makes it harder to cover things. |
The services are demanding them - they can't get enough Predators in Iraq. Now the revolution has come. And it's going to be explosive over the next few years. |
These organizations want to serve, including private companies. |
They're denied almost all imports except under tight control. They don't really trade with the world any more in any particular way. Their bank accounts are frozen. So on economic grounds, we've essentially done the worst we can do with Iraq, and so far they've survived. |
With the number of units available, they are coming to the point where they simply were not going to have enough brigades. There is a recognition that the number has to come down because of the stress that was being placed on the force. |
You are playing with people's lives. |