Northrop Turns Up the Heat on E-2D Cutbacks

(MoneyWatch)  Aviation Week reports that the Navy plans to cut $200 million form the E-2D carrier based radar plane's procurement budget in 2009 and 2010. Northrop is the maker of these aircraft. The E-2D is an upgrade to the E-2C that have been used by the U.S. Navy and some foreign customers for three decades. The reason for the cut is to fully fund the Navy's buy of the F-35 JSF advanced fighter. Northrop Grumman has argued that the cuts delay the program and increase unit cost as the quantity is spread out over more years. They have also had columns, like this one in The Saint Augustine Record, written stressing the economic hard during the downturn due to the cuts. Decisions like this are made every year within the Services budgets and by the Defense Department as well. Money is traded off between programs that are considered more important and then hopefully the losing program is paid back in the out years. Sometimes it doesn't always happen and the program losing funds never makes up the quantities cut.