"We oppose the construction of fortresses from both sides of the Atlantic ... It's impossible to create a protected home market and be a global and competitive enterprise," David Potts, who oversees international operations for Lockheed Martin, said at a press conference.

"We understand the short-term political attractiveness of such moves," said Potts, who was in Sofia for a conference organized by the US Chamber of Commerce on investments in the Bulgarian arms industry after the former communist state joins NATO in 2004.

"Our European industrial colleagues, we believe, agree that it will be better to live in an industry that is global and competitive, and that has access to the US market, than in one that's confined inside the European fortress, protected but undernourished," Potts said.

"The gaps in capability between the US and Europe remain with us," he said, referring to increasing government defense expenditures in America and decreasing ones in Europe.

But he said "the defense industrial cycle is longer than the political cycle.

"We're technically involved in projects that take years to develop and continue in production for decades. We can not and will not stop and start such projects in response to the latest headline," Potts said.

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