Defense industry faces major shifts

In unveiling a proposed fiscal 2010 budget of $534 billion — up 4 percent from this year — Gates wants to cut some key programs and boost others, directly affecting companies such as Bethesda defense and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and Rockville defense contractor BAE Systems. He also wants to cut the number of private contract workers from 39 percent of the Pentagon work force to the pre-2001 level of 26 percent, replacing them with full-time government employees...read more.