The Pentagon is once again trying to pressure Congress to resolve sequestration by threatening two of its most potent constituencies: active-duty troops and the defense industry.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gave his latest draconian warnings on Wednesday about the risks of leaving sequestration in effect — the U.S. can either field a high-tech military that may be too small to handle major conflicts or a larger but less well-equipped force that could put American troops’ lives in danger.
“These two approaches illustrate the difficult trade-offs and strategic choices that would face the department in a scenario where sequester-level cuts continue,” Hagel said. “Going forward, in the months ahead, DOD — and ultimately the president — will decide on a strategic course that best preserves our ability to defend our national security interests under this very daunting budget scenario.”
But despite near unanimity in Washington about the dangers of the across-the-board budget restrictions, lawmakers and the White House have been unable to dislodge each other from their positions on the larger disputes over taxes and spending. So sequestration, which took effect in March, now appears likely to take its next $52 billion bite in the fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
[...]
The review considered two different approaches to reducing force structure and modernization under sequestration.
“In the first approach, we would trade away size for high-end capability,” Hagel said. That’s the approach under which the active Army would drop to between 380,000 and 450,000 troops. The number of Navy carrier strike groups would be reduced from a target of 11 to eight or nine. The Marine Corps would be reduced from 182,000 troops to between 150,000 and 175,000. And the Pentagon would retire older Air Force bombers.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon would protect investments in the Air Force’s new bomber, submarine cruise missile upgrades, the F-35 Lightning II, cyber capabilities and special operations forces.
The second approach would go the opposite route, trading high-end capability for size. In describing it, Hagel used a loaded phrase designed to remind the defense industry about the trough in spending that followed the end of the Cold War.
“Cuts on this scale would, in effect, be a decade-long modernization holiday,” Hagel said...Read the full story HERE.
If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here.
Please follow us on Twitter here.
Please follow us on Twitter here.
1 comment:
All of a sudden, Hagel is worried about cuts in military spending, after decades of ADVOCATING for such cuts himself?!?!?
It's quite obvious that the ONLY spending cuts he's worried about are domestic ones, and that he's using military preparedness as a scare tactic to pressure Republicans into stopping the across-the-board cuts.
Sorry Chucky boy, if you can't properly defend our country with a $700 billion annual military budget, then you should immediately resign as Secretary of Defense and let someone else do the job.
Post a Comment