The Weapons Industry Couldn’t Be Happier About Biden’s Nominee for Pentagon Arms Buyer
The revolving door between the Pentagon and the military industry never stops spinning. The latest to walk through it: Bill LaPlante, who's moving from the arms industry to a top government position — buying arms from the arms industry.
Maintenance crews prepare a Lockheed Martin F-35A jet for a training flight in Hill Air Force Base, Utah. (George Frey / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A weapons industry trade group that represents companies including Lockheed Martin and Raytheon is thrilled about President Joe Biden’s nominee for the role of lead weapons buyer for the US military. In a statement released November 30, Arnold Punaro, board chairman of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), which calls itself a trade association for the “defense industrial base,” proclaimed that the president “made the superb choice of nominating Dr. Bill LaPlante to be the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment.”
LaPlante is being poached directly from the military industry that is praising him, which he entered after serving in an acquisitions role under the Obama administration, where he was known for shepherding through major (and controversial) programs, such as the acquisition of the F‑35 fighter jet.
By moving from government to industry, then back to government (should the Senate confirm him), all while the weapons industry cheers, LaPlante has spun through a well-trodden revolving door — a career trajectory that is entirely routine, but nonetheless scandalous.
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