Source: R&D magazine

The U.S. economy is reeling, the end of the Bush administration is in sight, and it’s a common believe that U.S. military spending is headed downward — after years of increases.

U.S. Rep. John Murtha, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, warned last week that incoming President Barack Obama faces an “enormity of challenges” in which Congress must “manage the current and future threats under a constrained defense budget.”

The real question seems to be not whether defense budgets will be reduced over the next several years, but whether U.S. military capability will be hurt substantially in the upcoming era of smaller federal defense allocations.

I’m not sure if defense capability will be hurt overall, but I think the kinds of traditional big-system military procurement that we have seen over the eight years of the Bush administration will see some big changes. We need to watch how the defense money will be spent.  To know more, click here.