Frank Kendall: DoD Needs to Have ‘Healthy Industrial Base’

Frank Kendall, former acquisition chief of the Defense Department, has said that DoD  needs to ensure that it has “a healthy industrial base to support it” while performing its mission, USNI News reported Monday.

He added that the military’s focus on readiness and force structure preservation efforts resulted in cuts to research and development funds.

Kendall is one of the panelists who gathered Monday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies-hosted event to discuss the findings of a December 2017 report on sequestration and its impact on the defense industrial base.

The report released by CSIS and the Aerospace Industries Association found that the Defense Department’s average contract obligations per year declined by 23 percent between fiscal years 2013 and 2015 due to sequestration triggered by the Budget Control Act of 2011, compared with a 5 percent drop in FY 2011 and FY 2012.

The study also showed that the number of prime contractors in the defense sector shrunk by approximately 20 percent between 2009 and 2019 as a result of spending reductions.

Eric Chewning, deputy assistant secretary of defense for manufacturing and industrial base policy, also participated in the panel discussion.