Wall Street and the Pentagon: Analyzing Defense Finance

After a decade of robust growth in defense spending that saw record high defense budgets during the past five years, the defense industry faces a new reality. While the absence of the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) in the National Defense Budget Estimates for FY2010 makes prediction difficult, likely changes in spending priorities have the potential to change the industry significantly. Indeed, in a recent interview, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) Ashton Carter said he would “like to know what the circumstances now emerging in the defense marketplace are going to do to the structure of the defense industry.”