The big defense contractors — including Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney — say they may have to send out mass layoff notices to their employees in a few months. That's because they're worried that hundreds of billions of dollars in expected cuts to the Pentagon's budget will have a big effect on them.

Federal spending on defense could soon be drawn back, and private companies that make military equipment will have to look elsewhere for customers.

With the super committee looking less and less likely to succeed, defense contractors are planning for the worst: automatic cuts.

As the unrest in the Middle East continues to escalate today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Obama administration has launched a…

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