The 'Last Supper' was a 1993 dinner at The Pentagon hosted by then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and Deputy Secretary of Defense William Perry to discuss defense industry consolidation in the United States. The name was bestowed by Norm Augustine, then the head of Martin Marietta and an attendee at the dinner. The recent end of the Cold War had raised calls for a peace dividend and Perry warned the defense industry that it would need to consolidate to survive coming budget cuts. The number of prime defense contractors in the U.S. would decline from 51 to 5 in the following years, consolidating the industry into only a few major companies.[1][2][3][4]
References
edit- ^ Defense News, The Pentagon wants industry to transform again to meet demand. Can it?, Feb. 20, 2024.|https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2024/02/20/the-pentagon-wants-industry-to-transform-again-to-meet-demand-can-it/
- ^ War on the Rocks, The U.S. Defense Industry in a New Era, Jan. 13, 2021|https://warontherocks.com/2021/01/the-u-s-defense-industry-in-a-new-era/
- ^ WBUR, 'The last supper': How a 1993 Pentagon dinner reshaped the defense industry, Mar. 1, 2023
- ^ The Washington Post, How a dinner led to a feed frenzy, Jul. 3, 1997|https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1997/07/04/how-a-dinner-led-to-a-feeding-frenzy/13961ba2-5908-4992-8335-c3c087cdebc6/