SANTA MARIA - When rockets launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base its the culmination of months, if not years, of sophisticated collaborative work involving contractors and sub-contractors including some here on the central coast.
"During the launch process and during all of the preparations the communications between all of the people involved is handled through our equipment", says David Wilhite, President of Santa Maria-based Quintron Systems.
Quintron employs dozens of people and prides itself in paying top tier wages to attract top caliber employees.
"For example with ULA (United Launch Alliance), there's a lot of federal funding behind those launches", Wilhite says, "they are a big single customer of ours."
But if Congress and President Obama fail to reach agreement on a new government spending and tax plan to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff", hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending cuts take effect Jan. 1, 2013.
The domino effect will be felt immediately by all American taxpayers and several local businesses that rely on government contracts, which could mean layoffs.
"We all get funded through different vehicles, different contracts", Wilhite says, "so that would really be what the first question is, if the government said, yes we're going to have to make the cuts, where are they made, then from there it starts making its way down the supplier chain."
There are thousands of people who work for local federal contractors and sub-contractors on the Central Coast.
Some of these companies have notified employees of potential cuts if no deal is reached in Washington before the December 31, 2012 deadline.
