Aerospace and Defense Contributions to the United States

  • Aerospace and defense is among the most vital U.S. industries, employing more than 1 million well-paid workers. The industry supports more than 2 million middle class jobs with more than 30,000 suppliers from all fifty states.
  • The industry’s workforce is highly skilled, leading our nation in global competitiveness. The workforce is comprised of proud, productive and patriotic citizens. Ensuring  opportunities for young people to have exciting and well-paying careers will keep the industry strong in the future.
  • The industry brings a $50 billion net positive to our global trade balance, and is the leading U.S. manufacturing exporter.
  • Aerospace technology innovation creates jobs and improves our balance of trade. Aerospace and defense research and development secures our nation’s future and strengthens the industrial base.

 

Defense

  • Being Second to None in aerospace and defense means our servicemen and women will be safe, that our industry will continue to produce millions of jobs, that our research and innovation will be lead the world, and that we won’t cede our primacy to other countries vying to displace the U.S. as a global leader.
  • The American military has ruled the skies for decades – but that advantage is at risk and rivals are nipping at our heels.  DOD warns that dominance in space will increasingly be contested, which China true has proved with a record fifteen orbital launches last year alone as well as stunning the world by blasting a satellite from the sky.  If we stand still, our rivals will catch or beat us.
  • While some of our enemies may be low tech, it still takes high tech gear to find and stop them.  Navy SEALs may have taken down Bin Laden, but it was U.S. spy satellites that found him, U.S. drones that surveilled him, and U.S. secure networks that beamed the raid back to U.S. leaders in real time.  Roadside bombs may be simple, but the jammers that defuse them are cutting edge.   The military edge that keeps our servicemen and women safe comes from our aerospace and defense industrial base.
  • Research and development is the lifeblood of a healthy military – if we had not invested in stealth technology in the 1970s or drones in the 1990s, we would not have enjoyed the long headstart in those technologies that has protected and enriched us in recent years.  Countries are clamoring to buy our drones and stealthy fighters, because we rolled them out first.  Yet for the first time in 100 years, the United States has no new manned military aircraft in design.  Secretary Panetta said during his confirmation “if we want to protect our capabilities for the future, we have got to be able to have good R&D.”
  • Extreme cuts might bring short term savings but will cost more in the long run – Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn recently warned that earlier cuts “crippled” whole sectors of the industry, and when new threats came and we needed to rebuild from scratch, the costs came with a “multiplier” because we hadn’t kept our industrial capabilities intact.

 

Civil Aviation

  • The U.S. air traffic system relies on 1950s-era technology that is less accurate and less reliable than the GPS and computer systems in any modern smartphone.  At the same time, our skies are growing more crowded – the number of passengers is expected to rise from 712 million last year to a billion or more next decade, not to mention the proliferation of unmanned vehicles.  We need a modern GPS-based system to safely and efficiently handle the increased density.
  • A modern air traffic control system – the Next Generation Air Transportation System – would reduce delays by at least 25% and save our economy an estimated $40 billion a year in lost productivity and missed opportunities, according to Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.  Fuel usage would drop by nearly 1.4 billion gallons a year even as flights increase by almost 50%, and greenhouse-gas emissions would go down by about 12%, the equivalent of removing 2.2 million cars from the roads each year.
  • The Federal Aviation Administration predicts that by 2031 the annual number of airline passengers in the United States will increase 78% –from 712.6 million in 2010 to about 1.27 billion in 2031. The associated increase in economic benefits from civil aviation will exceed $200 billion.

 

Space

  • With the retirement of the space shuttle program, America has no capacity to lift U.S. astronauts to orbit and must rely on the Russians to do so at a charge of roughly $60 million per launch – money that should be going to our space program, not theirs.
  • China, Russia, and India all have plans underway to explore the moon and beyond – the U.S. space program needs clear leadership and bold goals to keep us ahead of our rivals for space leadership.
  • History shows that aerospace and defense innovation spins off new technologies and industries at a breathtaking pace.   From computers to cell phones to GPS and beyond — 1,650 NASA spin offs since 1976 alone — our economy grows stronger when we make this commitment.  Taking a cleaver to the defense budget might yield some short-term savings, but we cannot afford the long-term costs.