Military expansion - bodes well for Arizona

[The Straight Story]

Military expansion

President Bush's $515.4 billion 2009 defense budget, now before Congress, bodes well for Arizona's more than 6,000 military contractors and subcontractors.
.....

Some analysts predicted sharp military-spending cuts after the Democrats took over Congress last year. But Curran notes that in some cases the Democrats have been more willing to fund critical defense programs than the Republicans.

Plans to expand the U.S. Army by 65,000 people and the Marine Corps by 27,000 by 2011 also will help the defense budget.

....

Besides the $515.4 billion 2009 budget, the U.S. Department of Defense is requesting another $70 billion to finance the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That number could swell to $170 billion and include billions to repair and replace equipment. The $480 billion basic 2008 budget had $190 billion in war costs added on.

The so-called equipment resets benefit many Arizona companies that make components for repaired or replaced equipment.

Mesa's ATK Medium Caliber Gun Systems makes cannons for the Apache helicopter and Bradley fighting vehicle and is busy repairing and replacing equipment damaged in Iraq.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/04/07/20080407biz-military0407.html