The shipbuilding industry is clustered in southern New England, Virginia’s Tidewater region and along the Gulf Coast, and training is often isolated. But 3 million people were working in the defense industry in 1985, the former defense secretary said. That means defense industry is subject to “successive decisions [that] are unpredictable and inconsistent” in a new administration, the Defense Department or Congress. Looking at the more immediate needs the Navy anticipates allows “shipyards to make decisions on facilities and workforce,” Paxton said. Norquist added in the new emphasis on high-end conflict “all the risk models [used by the Defense Department and defense industry] are changing.”His advice to the Pentagon is clarity.