Bell Helicopter CEO John Garrison Expresses Grave Concern About Automatic Budget Cuts

The automatic budget cuts which are scheduled to go into effect in January known as "sequestration" could be devastating to the aerospace industry. That's the forecast from Bell Helicopter CEO John Garrison, who made the remarks Tuesday at the Aviation and Aerospace Industry Manufacturing Summit being held in Fort Worth, TX.

In his remarks, Garrison said that the cuts would affect engineering and manufacturing, as well as have wide-ranging downstream effects. "It's a horrible way to set policy," he said.

The blog Sky Talk which is hosted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Garrison said Bell would would not feel an immediate pinch from sequestration because of ongoing contracts on such programs as the V-22 Osprey and military helicopters. He said he hopes that the federal government would not break existing contracts as a result of the cuts.

But he also said the company has been given "no guidance" about how the cuts would be implemented. Garrison said that Defense Secretary Panetta continues to insist that sequestration is not going to happen.

The process would cut as much as a trillion dollars from the federal budget over the next 10 years ... or about $100 billion per year.

FMI: www.bellhelicopter.com, www.defense.gov