Army Industrial Base Said to Be in 'Death Spiral'

At what point will Army readiness be compromised by sharp reductions in research, development and acquisition spending, a moderator on a panel asked Heidi Shyu, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology. "We are already at that point," she answered. Later, she said that the Army-owned manufacturing facilities were in a "death spiral." R&D and acquisition accounts have dropped twice as fast as the Army top line budget over the past three years, she said. Parsing out the design and development accounts, the Army's is now has the smallest budget of all the armed services.