This Spring I was attending a training program with some military and government folks. One of the guys mentioned the impending Combat Recession. It was the terminology he used to describe the shrinkage we are all experiencing in defense. As the war comes to a close, spending is getting tight. If the budget tsunami that is sequestration hits, I don’t know if ‘recession’ will be a strong enough word.
Seems like a lot of folks have forgotten about those antebellum days when there wasn’t nearly as much money in defense. For the defense industry, these past ten years haven’t been just shooting fish in a barrel, the fish would literally jump into the boat, ask you to eat them and then clean themselves. But, those days are over. Some will adapt, others will fall.
One of the topics I will be exploring during these next two days at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting is how industry is adapting to this Combat Recession my friend spoke of.
Yesterday, another industry friend sent me a text from the show floor. It said in part, “What is happening at AUSA today is the Conventional Industry’s Zombie Apocalypse…” The floor is bereft of green suiters and it is leaving many vendors uneasy. Unfortunately, this year’s annual meeting is victim to a perfect storm of an Army weary of fighting in Afghanistan, impending budget sequestration and worst of all, fallout from the recent excesses by GSA. By all accounts, travel to AUSA on orders was severely restricted. No wonder it was so easy to find a hotel near the convention center.
I look forward to getting even more insight as I walk the floor today and tomorrow.
