Pentagon Cuts Has Suppliers Shedding Workers

One-quarter of Lockheed Martin’s executives have applied for buyouts as the company cut costs. Lockheed is the world’s largest military company. It’s said that most of the 600 executives who applied for the buyout were at or near retirement age. The 600 requests are expected to be granted. This coincides with the news that the long surge in military spending has come to an end. Lockheed has reduced its work force by 10,000 since the beginning of last year, to a total of 136,000. Other military companies are also eliminating jobs. These loss of jobs comes as the defense secretary has canceled or restructured nearly three dozen weapons programs since last year. The defense secretary is pushing for more overhead cuts and greater efficiency to free money for the most important programs.