Letter To Industry

Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall told the National Defense Industrial Association yesterday that due to sequestration kicking in the Defense Department will likely be buying less equipment and signing fewer service contracts through the end of fiscal year 2013.

"To the extent we can continue operations while delaying and deferring new obligations until the uncertainty is resolved, we will do so," Kendall said in a letter to retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Lawrence Farrell, the president of NDIA.

Kendall said the funding reductions the department will absorb "will affect the full range of the Department's planned contract and grants and adversely affect the efficiency with which we acquire goods and services."

NDIA's member companies can expect to be contacted by DOD officials about specific decisions, according to Kendall.

"Now, more than ever, the Department and industry need to work together to identify courses of actions that will minimize the negative impacts that will inevitably result from sequestration and, wherever possible to preserve options should sequestration be reversed or modified," he added.