I was in the military for over 20 years as a pilot, and I worked in Pentagon as well. I also used to work for a private company that had some defense related business.
Here is the brass tax: the DoD has already taken massive cuts under King Obama I. There were real cuts, and amounted to $450 Billion in reduction to the DoD budget. They were spread out over current and future years, and what that meant was that each service had to cut, and cut deep. The Army and Air Force cut thousands upon thousands of DoD civilian and contractor jobs. The Navy primarily cut contractors but also had a deeper hiring freeze.
Every DoD budget is projected in the out years, because weapon systems take so long to develop. But the job losses in the near term were huge.
The Sequester cut is on top of the $450 Billion cut that Panetta slashed on the orders of his boss, the Community Organizer. Panetta is an honorable man, perhaps the only honorable man in the Obama administration. He knew he was cutting to the bone, but he did as he was told. Sequester is a mortal wound, and Panetta knows it.
You cannot convince the public to look away from "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" long enough to explain the facts to them. They see a 10% cut hitting the military in 2 days and say: "So what! Fat cats! As long as I GET my unemployment, Social Security, disability, EBT check, then who cares?"
To cut that 10%, the Defense Dept cannot cut active troop personnel strength. That is Obama's order, because he doesn't want the political fall out of that. BUT, I have news for everyone. Obama is going to cut active duty, guard, and reserve uniformed strength anyway, and very soon. He will simply do it later this year. So, the DoD will have to take the money out of Operations and Maintenance, referred to as O&M. That will gut the military to the bone. That is the life blood of the military.
Contractors like Lockheed sold their soul to Obama before the November election. Lockheed is the largest DoD contractor, and they figured they would play politics and not send out layoff notices. They are going to get murdered anyway. Smart investors and companies realized 2 years ago that barring open war, the military will be gutted under Obama II to a level not seen in modern times.
Even if Sequester is partially put off (which looks very unlikely as of today), defense spending is going down the tubes anyway. Why? Entitlements have won the day. We now have a Federal Govt that exists as an ATM for over 50% of all Americans, and is very close to spending 70% of every dollar (of which 40 cents is borrowed) on Entitlements.
The US is in huge trouble: economically, politically, culturally, and militarily. Our primary problem is spiritual, but that is another discussion.
I think we have crossed the Rubicon. There are dark days ahead.