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It's not that I'm thinking "evil corporation"... All companies have boards that eventually replace CEOs or key officers if they don't hit targets. But, Lockheed's name carries a lot of weight -- enough to potentially sway or spook people and organizations. Or, bully them, in some cases. The reality is that we cannot just keep printing money, not even for Lockheed.

Painfully, unfortunately, the real financial fun has yet to begun, and we will keep spending our way into the cistern to keep up appearances or to prop up a gasping, wheezing economy.

Curiously, though, every other day, it's "Jobless claims are up by 0.x2%"/"Jobless benefits claims have risen by 0.5 percent..." / "This is the worst the economy has been in x years..." / "We're on the mend..."


It's like a rollercoaster ride. Enough to make one not want to read the economic forecasts. I' spend what i can, to eat, and to use transit, to keep my phone on, and pay my rent and service two of my debts. I may hit a coffee shop here and a few eateries there (at more expense to me) to help support moms and pops (Yeh, McDs gets maybe $30 a week, too), but wardrobe updates are something I do only every 2 to 3 sometimes 4 years. Many people are deferring so many things that, of course, across the tapestry of the economy, things are going to fall or vaporize. Now, if only Lockheed sold household items, maybe we could all splurge from time to time to prop them up. But, I have a feeling Lockheed has more than $60B in cash squirreled away somewhere, and billions more in good will, deferred contracts, and premium/choice as prime contractor....

It's interesting tho... maybe lockheed IS really hurting (or using its voice to badger the government/s into seeding/funding smaller projects?) -- after all, they sell globally, and I'd expect that they have all sorts of things on tap to sell during slow times, when quarter-on-quarter big ticket items are elusive.

I heard that the US plans to cut 900,000 out of some 1.4 million defense personnel. Is that tenable/achievable?

If there's to be a fleet of 15 carriers (or is it 13 now?) that some 4,500 to 6,000 personnel per CVN with the airwing/s aboard. The accompanying ships may be 5-8 in number, each with maybe 350-450 (not counting the 1 or 2 screening subs of about 119 to 130).

So, that alone (so, not counting logistics, fuel/support ships, since they would support many other "customers", and not counting the amphibious and ASW/anti-mine/other auxiliary/MSC/USNS ships, other SSNs, the SSBNs, and SSGNs) would be maybe:

Type CTF Count Fleet Count Crew/Wings CTF Count Fleet Count Crew/Wings Fleet Personnel
CVN 1 13 4500 1 13 6000 58500 to 78000

DDG 4 13 350 6 13 350 1400 to 2100

SSN 1 13 119 1 13 130 119 to 130
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
totals 6 4969 8 6480 60019 to 80230



Or, maybe:

Type CTF Count Fleet Count Crew/Wings CTF Count Fleet Count Crew/Wings Fleet Personnel
CVN 1 15 4500 1 13 6000 67500 to 90000

DDG 6 15 390 6 13 390 23400 to 31500

SSN 2 15 119 2 13 130 1785 to 3900
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
totals 6 5009 9 6480 92685 to 129000

I don't know what kind of air wing stand-downs and swaps/assignments happen, but things might get pretty interesting from a perspective of maintenance, op tempo, parts, and decompressions/de-stressing, plus family impacts.

I know that probably 4-6 CVNs might not be on full deployment orders, and maybe 2 are in some stage of refits or IMAV/RAV/PRAV or certifications (plant, airwing, ASW, etc...),