Industry

The trade association that’s been the defense industry’s chief lobbyist fighting sequestration released a poll Tuesday that shows voters overwhelmingly want Congress and the Obama administration to fix sequestration before the November election.

The poll from the Aerospace Industries Association found that 80 percent of likely voters in five swing states — Florida, Missouri, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania — agree that sequestration should be reversed before the election.

The survey, which was conducted online by Harris Interactive, is the latest tool in AIA’s Second to None campaign to try and generate movement to stop the sequestration cuts, which would hit defense budgets by $500 billion over the next 10 years, as well as a similar cut to non-defense discretionary spending.

Despite administration warnings that notices related to sequestration were unnecessary, Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney are continuing their preparations.

The Obama administration slapped at defense contractors on Monday, saying threats to issue layoff notices before the election because of pending Pentagon cuts is "inappropriate."

Lockheed Martin CEO Bob Stevens first made the high-profile threat last month that his company would have to issue 123,000 layoff notices to all its employees right before the November elections because of federal reporting requirements in the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requiring 60 days' notice for layoffs.

But the new guidance from the Labor Department on the WARN Act says it would be “inappropriate” to send out layoff notices due to the potential $500 billion in defense cuts 60 days prior to sequestration's start date of Jan. 2 — which would cause the notices to be sent out just days before the Nov. 6 elections.

Government watchdogs are raising red flags about the top Republican staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee for her ties to Lockheed Martin.

Ann Elise Sauer was hired by Armed Services ranking member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as the committee’s Republican staff director in February, after she left Lockheed Martin as a vice president in 2011.

The government salary tracker Legistorm pointed out earlier this month that Sauer received a $1.6 million payment from Lockheed as she left the company, which appeared in her financial disclosure filing with the committee.

Lobbying totals for 20 of the most active contractors was nearly identical to the first half of 2011.

The Topline: As many 600,000 federal jobs could be lost if the automatic cuts through sequestration take effect, according to a new study being released Tuesday by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).

In a study last year, the AIA found that more than 1 million defense-related jobs could be at risk if the $500 billion cut to defense and non-defense spending through sequestration occurred. Now the defense industry trade group is coming out with a new study looking at the broader implications of the sequester to both defense and non-defense industries.

The study, conducted by George Mason economist Stephen Fuller, broke down the cuts by industry. Nearly 50,000 workers in health and education, for instance, could lose their jobs, according to the study from Fuller, who also did AIA’s first report on sequestration.

The trade group is set to unveil the new jobs figures at an event Tuesday featuring Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), as well as the mayors of San Diego and Phoenix.

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A group of Senate defense hawks are asking 15 of the biggest defense contractors to explain how $500 billion in defense cuts could impact them, the latest effort in a campaign to pry information from the White House and Pentagon about the automatic cuts.

Of course, the defense industry has already joined its allies in Congress expressing extreme opposition to sequestration cuts taking effect in January and urging Congress to undo them.

Industry leaders, such as Lockheed Martin CEO Bob Stevens, have warned of layoffs, and Stevens said last month that all 100,000-plus employees in his companies could receive layoff notices right before the election due to federal reporting requirements.

The United States should establish “red lines” linking military agreements with Persian Gulf allies to respect for human rights, the Senate's top lawmaker on foreign affairs argues in a new report.

The recommendation by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) comes as the United States seeks to balance the democratic aspirations unleashed by the Arab Spring with the need to retain “consistency” in its security partnerships in a strategically vital part of the world. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee report covers America's relationship with the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. weapons sales to Bahrain in particular have come under considerable criticism following last year's crackdown on Shiite protesters. The Obama administration announced last month that it would resume arms sales to Bahrain's defense force, coast guard and national guard despite ongoing human-rights concerns.

“The United States should not be quick to rescind security assurances or assistance in response to human rights abuses, but should evaluate each case on its own merits,” reads the report. Still, “[t]he United States should make clear that states must not use arms procured from the United States against their own people engaged in peaceful assembly or exploit the U.S. security umbrella as protection for belligerent action against their neighbors.”

Northrop Grumman is looking to move its venerable Global Hawk aerial drone from the skies above Afghanistan to the frigid air of the Canadian Arctic. 

The U.S. weapons manufacturing giant has rolled out a new version of its Global Hawk designed to withstand the "harsh weather conditions over vast expanses of … land, ice, littoral and open water environments throughout the Arctic," according to a company statement. 

Designed as a joint venture with defense firm L-3 Communications, the modified "Polar Hawk" is tailored to meet Canada's growing demand for intelligence in the Arctic region. 

The drone’s features "are uniquely suited" to meet Canadian military requirements to "extend its reach to patrol … the nation's vast Arctic region from coast to coast in a single mission," Duke Dufresne, vice president and general manager for Northrop Grumman's unmanned systems business, said in the statement. 

A Senate report says 70 percent of fake parts come from China. Pentagon says risk is with all foreign contractors.