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DAN MURPHY, CEO, ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS ()

"I think that the economy is bottoming, yes, but I am petrified by the debt that this country (United States) is taking on.

"I'm not sure that there's a wide recognition what sort of a long-term challenge this is going to be to pay it off."

RON SUGAR, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, NORTHROP GRUMMAN ()

"The fear of continued freefall is basically behind us."

"We do not see the United States defense budget dramatically decreasing. In fact, if anything we're going to see (it) probably stable, maybe slightly increasing."

GIORGIO ZAPPA, COO, FINMECCANICA ()

"U.S. defense spending remains very stable if you look beyond the big programs."

PIERFRANCESCO GUARGUAGLINI, CEO, FINMECCANICA

"I have seen, at least in Italy, some signs of recovery from the economic point of view. But really, that was in May compared to April, not May compared to a year ago."

SCOTT CARSON, CEO, BOEING COMMERCIAL AIRPLANES ()

"It feels to me as if we may have reached a bottom both in terms of air freight but perhaps even more importantly in terms of global air traffic. "The long-term prospects for this industry remain robust and as global GDP recovers we expect to see a recovery both in air freight and passenger traffic."

TOM ENDERS, CEO, AIRBUS ()

"We have no visibility... We will see in 2010 what the depth of the crisis is."

LUTZ BERTLING, CEO, EUROCOPTER

"2010 will be a difficult year for Eurocopter.

"We are entering this gloomy tunnel of 2010, but we are already seeing a sunny end of the tunnel."

"There is a very significant impact on the civil side of the business in the bookings that we are seeing now."

MIKHAIL POGOSYAN, DIRECTOR GENERAL, SUKHOI

"It's now very important that we ramp up production for the start of the recovery."