Defense contractors decry weapons cuts

MARIETTA, Ga., April 28 (UPI) -- U.S. defense contractors and labor unions say deep cuts proposed by the Obama administration for some weapons programs will hurt the economy.

At a time when President Barack Obama is moving to create jobs with federal stimulus funding on one hand, they contend it's wrong to eliminate what they say will be 100,000 jobs by cutting Defense Department programs on the other, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Lockheed Martin workers in Marietta, Ga., who assemble the slated-for-cancellation F-22 Raptor fighter jet, told the newspaper the moves would hurt the U.S. economy.

"It doesn't make sense that our government is looking at trying to save or create jobs at the same time it's talking about cutting something like this," said Jeff Goen, president of the local chapter of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

But the Post said analysts note that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has tailored the Pentagon budget to include growth in some programs while cutting weapons systems considered wasteful, thus lowering the intensity of the opposition and actually increasing the overall defense budget by $20 billion, to $534 billion.