{"id":70462,"date":"2025-09-29T18:17:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/09\/29\/small-defense-firms-warn-shutdown-will-hurt-industrial-base\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:23:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:23:52","slug":"small-defense-firms-warn-shutdown-will-hurt-industrial-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2025\/09\/29\/small-defense-firms-warn-shutdown-will-hurt-industrial-base\/","title":{"rendered":"Small defense firms warn shutdown will hurt industrial base"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A collection of small defense technology firms and entrepreneurs is urging lawmakers of both parties to avert a looming government shutdown<\/a>, warning such a closure would hurt the defense industrial base and startup firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Monday letter to leaders of both parties in the House and Senate, as well as Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, the groups said a government shutdown would be extremely wasteful and harm defense firms. Signing onto the letter were the Software in Defense Coalition, the Alliance for Commercial Technology in Government, the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum and the Silicon Valley Defense Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past shutdowns have led to the furlough of senior acquisition officials, slowed procurement timelines and disrupted science and technology programs, the organizations said. Even the F-35 program, one of the government\u2019s major acquisitions, came close to halting production during the 2013 shutdown, they said in the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But small vendors \u2014 which have smaller profit margins, constrained cash flows and fewer non-government contracts than bigger firms \u2014 will find it even harder to weather shutdown turmoil, the organizations said. After the 2013 shutdown, they said, small businesses\u2019 government contracts fell by about one-third and spending dropped about 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small companies are already making up a smaller portion of the defense industrial base, the letter said, and over the last decade, their participation has dropped 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGovernment shutdowns exacerbate this erosion, pushing startups and innovative firms out of the defense market,\u201d the letter said. \u201cAt a time when U.S. strategic competitors are expanding rapidly, America cannot afford to diminish the diversity and innovation of its industrial base.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t