Industry gives Panetta a vote of confidence.

• Position: Defense Insider

* Ever since former Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned in 2009 that the "spigot of defense funding opened by 9/11 is closing," Pentagon suppliers have become increasingly worried about their financial future.

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But a series of meetings with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have reassured industry CEOs that the Pentagon is taking some reasonable steps to protect the industrial base, said Fred Downey, vice president of the Aerospace Industries Association.

"Panetta gets it," Downey said. Deputy Secretary Ashton Carter, acquisitions chief Frank Kendall and industrial policy director Brett Lambert also "get it," said Downey,

"We're beginning to see consideration of the industrial base enter the rhetoric of the planning process," he said.

The Defense Department's funding request for fiscal years 2013-2017 squeezes $259 billion out of the Pentagon's budget. Over the next two years...