Black Hawk maker cuts jobs as contractors, lawmakers fret over defense cuts

Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. – maker of the Black Hawk helicopter – has announced the elimination of 570 jobs, becoming the most recent defense contractor to announce financial struggles amid tightened defense spending and the potential for drastic cutbacks in January. 

The Pentagon plans to cut $487 billion from its budget over the next decade, but contractors and lawmakers alike are alarmed about a separate wave of cuts that could begin Jan. 2 unless Congress and the White House team up to avert them. 

The Sikorsky cuts are set to go into effect Dec. 31 when the company closes its upstate New York plant and sends the work to its facility in West Palm Beach, Fla.

"Faced with these difficult economic conditions, we must eliminate excess production capacity and increase operational efficiencies to remain competitive," Paul Jackson, spokesman for the Stratford, Conn.-based subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., said Monday.

The job cutbacks are the latest contractor casualty. 

Northrop Grumman recently announced it was cutting 600 aerospace jobs. And the announcements come as House Republicans renew their calls for the Obama administration to reveal the full impact of the next wave of scheduled defense cuts. They're concerned specifically about guidance from the Labor Department over the summer that federal contractors would not have to give 60-days notice of mass layoffs despite a federal law that says companies facing such circumstances should. 

The projected $500 billion in additional Pentagon cuts would be the result of so-called sequestration – the automatic spending reductions for the military and other areas that take effect because Congress failed to agree on a deficit-reduction plan this summer.

Rep. John Kline, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, suggested Monday that the Labor Department is trying to conceal the full impact. 

"The Labor Department is trying to hide the consequences of sequestration from workers," Kline, R-Minn., told Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

The letter was the second in two months by Republican committee leaders in which they also asked for an update and more detailed information about the obligations federal contractors have in giving employees advanced notice about possible layoffs in January should Congress not reach a new agreement.

"The department's refusal to answer our questions regarding its controversial guidance and how it will affect families and businesses across the country is just the latest in a disturbing pattern of congressional obstruction,” Kline wrote.

Sikorsky's New York facility in Big Flats customized military helicopters sold to foreign governments. The helicopter maker and military contractor announced in September 2011 that it was trimming its worldwide workforce of 18,000 by about 540 jobs, citing the sluggish worldwide economy’s impact on commercial and military customers.

Sikorsky’s signature Black Hawk has been a workhorse for the U.S. military to strike targets and ferry troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2005, sales at Sikorsky have more than doubled, to $7.36 billion in 2011.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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China unveils first aircraft carrier to enter service

BEIJING –  China formally entered its first aircraft carrier into service on Tuesday, underscoring its ambitions to be a leading Asian naval power, although the ship is not expected to carry a full complement of planes or be ready for combat for some time.

The Defense Ministry's announcement had been long expected and was not directly linked to current tensions with Japan over a disputed group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

In a brief notice on its website, the ministry said the carrier's commissioning significantly boosted the navy's combat capabilities and its ability to cooperate in responding to natural disasters and other non-traditional threats.

"It has important significance in effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development benefits, and advancing world peace and common development," the statement said.

China had partly justified the launching of a carrier by pointing out that it alone among the five permanent United Nations Security Council members had no such craft. That had been particularly glaring given the constant presence in Asia of carriers operated by the U.S. Navy, which maintains 11 worldwide.

President Hu Jintao, also chairman of the commission that controls the military, presided over a ceremony Tuesday morning at the ship's home port of Dalian, along with Premier Wen Jiabao and top generals. Hu "fully affirmed" the efforts of those working on the ship and called on them to complete all remaining tasks according to the highest standard, the Defense Ministry said.

The carrier is the former Soviet navy's unfinished Varyag, which was towed from Ukraine in 1998 minus its engines, weaponry and navigation systems. Christened the Liaoning after the northeastern province surrounding Dalian, the ship began sea trials in August 2011 following years of refurbishment.

So far the trial runs of the aircraft carrier have been to test the ship's propulsion, communications and navigation systems. But launching and recovering fixed-wing aircraft at sea is a much trickier proposition. It will take years to build the proper aircraft, to train pilots to land in adverse weather on a moving deck, and to develop a proper carrier battle group.

China is developing a carrier-based fighter-bomber, the J-15, derived from Russia's Sukhoi Su-33, along with a prototype stealth carrier fighter, the J-31.

Beijing hasn't said what role it intends the carrier to fill other than helping safeguard China's coastline and sea links. The Liaoning has also been portrayed as a kind of test platform for the future development of up to five domestically built Chinese carriers.

Writing in Tuesday's China Daily newspaper, retired Rear Adm. Yang Yi said the carrier will be used to master the technology for more advanced carriers. He said it also will be used to train in how to operate such a craft in a battle group and with vessels from other nation's navies.

Without specifically mentioning China's territorial disputes, Yang acknowledged other countries' concerns about its growing military might, but said Beijing wouldn't shy from flexing its muscles.

"When China has a more balanced and powerful navy, the regional situation will be more stable as various forces that threaten regional peace will no longer dare to act rashly," Yang wrote.

Whatever its practical effects on China's global status, the carrier embodies huge symbolism for China's political and military leaders as a totem of their country's rise from weakness to strength, according to Andrew S. Erickson, a China naval specialist at the U.S. Naval War College.

"While (Chinese navy) acceptance of this `starter carrier' is the first step in a long journey, it is a journey that will take place in full view of the world, and one that will ultimately take Beijing to a new place as a great sea power," Erickson wrote on his blog.

The carrier's political importance was highlighted in Wen's remarks to the ceremony, in which he said it would "arouse national pride and patriotic passion."

"This has mighty and deep significance for the opening of a new facet in our enterprise of socialism with Chinese characteristics," he said.

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Panetta says protests in Middle East will continue, but violence is leveling off

ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT –  U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the turmoil raging across the Muslim world is likely to continue into the days ahead, but he says the violence expected by the U.S. appears to be leveling off.

He said the Pentagon has "deployed our forces to a number of areas in the region to be prepared to respond to any requests that we receive to be able to protect our personnel and our American property."

He declined to provide more details on reports that the military may be moving additional military forces so they can respond to unrest in any of a number of regions of concern.

"I think our approach right now is to not do anything until we've been requested to do it by the State Department," Panetta told reporters traveling with him to Asia. But he noted that, "I think that we have to continue to be very vigilant because I suspect that ... these demonstrations are likely to continue over the next few days, if not longer."

Protests by furious Muslims erupted in countries around the world in recent days, with some spawning violence and even deaths over an anti-Islam video shot in California that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad. In places like Libya, Sudan and Tunisia, protesters stormed U.S. embassies, and an American fast food restaurant was burned in Lebanon.

In response, the Pentagon dispatched elite Marine rapid response teams to Libya and Yemen, but a team deployed to Khartoum on Friday was turned back when the Sudanese government objected.

Asked about Sudan's decision, Panetta said host countries have the right to reject such military deployments.

"My understanding is that they felt that they could provide sufficient security to be able to protect our embassy and our personnel there," said Panetta. "And you know, in many ways, as all of you know the primary responsibility for protecting embassies rests with the host country."

Known as a fleet antiterrorism security teams, the units were sent in response to violent protests in Khartoum where protesters tried to climb the walls of the U.S. Embassy, setting off a battle with police.

The Navy also moved two warships to positions off the coast of Libya. The two destroyers are largely meant as a show of force, but they carry Tomahawk missiles and can also be available for evacuations or other missions as needed.

The intensity of the anti-American fervor initially caught U.S. leaders by surprise, but in the last several days the Obama administration has deployed military units to shore up security in hotspots, and used diplomacy to call for calm and urge foreign governments to protect American interests in their countries.

It also has been unclear how much of the violence was spontaneously triggered by the film and how much of it was spurred on by anti-American militants using it as a tool to grow and enrage the crowds.

The Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen praised the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Libya in an online statement Saturday and called for more attacks to expel American embassies from Muslim nations.

Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was killed Tuesday along with three other Americans, as violent protesters stormed the consulate in Benghazi. President Barack Obama has vowed that the attackers would be brought to justice, but has also stressed that the U.S. respects religious freedom.

The protests were set off by a low-budget, crudely produced film called "Innocence of Muslims," which portrays Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. A 14-minute excerpt of the film, which is both in English and dubbed into Arabic, has been available on YouTube, although some countries have cut access to the site.

Panetta was traveling to Asia, where he will visit Japan, China and New Zealand.

His visit comes amid escalating tensions in the region including tussles over several disputed islands in the East China Sea. It is Panetta's third trip to the region in the last 11 months, reflecting the Pentagon's ongoing effort to put a greater military focus on the Pacific region.

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