Defense industry representatives urged two congressional leaders in Dayton to reach a deal to avert half a trillion dollars in automatic, across-the-board cuts to the military to avoid potential layoffs, project cancellations and lost contracts.

The five defense leaders, speaking to U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, and U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-California, at a hearing Wednesday at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, warned the effects of sequestration would devastate the nation’s defense industrial base and hurt employment.

“The ramifications to our industry and this region are staggering,” said Deborah Gross, executive director of the Dayton Area Defense Contractors Association.

The Department of Defense faces $500 billion in automatic reductions over a decade if congressional lawmakers and the White House don’t reach a bipartisan deal to avert the cuts, known as budget sequestration, set to take effect Jan. 2. The cuts are in addition to $487 billion the Defense Department agreed to absorb over 10 years.

While no one knows for sure how many jobs might be lost, Turner has estimated roughly 4,000 to 5,000 jobs could be at risk in the Miami Valley, home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The nation can’t wait for Congress to act until a budget spending resolution that continues the current level of federal spending expires in March, hearing attendees said.

Turner, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, said he’s pessimistic a deal can be reached prior to the cuts. Turner toured Sanchez’s southern California congressional district, filled with aerospace and defense firms, earlier this week.

Sanchez, the top Democrat on the panel, said she’s optimistic, but won’t accept GOP suggestions to hold the defense budget harmless from cuts forcing a double reduction on a wide range of domestic spending from education to housing.

“We need to find a solution where everything can be trimmed, but we can find new revenue,” she said. “…We cannot double up on cuts on the other side.”

Sanchez also had a question for defense contractors: What will they do to help Congress reach a deal, she said.

Joseph Zeis, executive vice president and chief strategic officer of the Dayton Development Coalition, said sequestration is a “non-deliberative, chaotic process” with few details on where cuts would fall.

“It’s no wonder why uncertainty is rampant,” he said. “Morale is much lower because of the uncertainty.”

Defense Department civilian workers could face partial hiring freezes and furloughs, he said. The expertise lost through job reductions couldn’t be recovered easily, he said.

While the Defense Department hasn’t detailed with depth where the cuts could happen, defense firm L-3 Communications has calculated the reductions could mean a 12 percent annual cut for its business, said Tim Sweeney, the company’s development manager.

“This would be devastating,” he said. The company counts 1,200 employees in Ohio.

The cuts could reach into university research and development budgets, and drive aerospace students away from the field, said Michael L. Heil, Ohio Aerospace Institute president and chief executive officer.

“Sequestration threatens to choke the pipeline of talent,” he said, and make the U.S. aerospace industry “second-rate.”

Employees and communities have a “growing sense of frustration” over sequestration concerns, said Donald Greiman, director of Midwest operations at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., which has 425 employees in the Dayton region and $135 million in business.

Michael McGovern, a campaign spokesman for Sharen Neuhardt, a Democrat near Yellow Springs who opposes Turner, said in an email the congressman “may not have voted for sequestration, but his unwillingness to compromise is jeopardizing our national security and thousands of local defense jobs.” McGovern said a bipartisan solution can be reached, “but only if people like Mike Turner stop putting tax cuts for millionaires ahead of our national security.”

“Sharen Neuhardt will support a balanced, common sense approach in Congress to avoid sequestration and its harmful effects on Wright-Patterson and the working families in the Miami Valley.”

A spokesman for the congressman has said Turner opposes raising taxes in a recession.