Loren Thompson also warned that the civil sector might not be around to bail out defense, agreeing with AIA’s John Douglass (see above). The trade deficit was $100 billion in 2006, reached $400 billion in 2004, is $800 billion today, and will surpass a trillion dollars in 2010, Thompson said. In the last five years, commercial manufacturing consistently has declined, “with 43,000 manufacturing jobs going away every day,” Thompson noted. “The US is de-industrializing” and this begs the question of what the nation would do to “mobilize for a prolonged conflict.”
B-21 Raider First Flight Now Postponed to 2023
May 20, 2022
The Air Force says the B-21 Raider won't make its first flight until 2023; about a six-month delay from the last official estimates. No reason was given for the delay. While other programs have recently chalked up schedule slips to supply chain and labor shortages, the Air Force has said…