Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlined the most sweeping changes in defense spending priorities in decades on Monday, proposing the elimination of a long list of big-ticket programs as he shifts the Pentagon’s emphasis from conventional to irregular warfare.
The cuts span the various military branches and include many of their best-known weapons programs. They include the bulk of the Army’s Future Combat Systems, the Air Force’s F-22 fighter, the next generation of Navy destroyers and the C-17 cargo plane. A new fleet of presidential helicopters also would be dropped.
At the same time, Gates said he wants to put more money into intelligence-gathering and surveillance as well as personnel growth in the military services, which he said are at risk of “hollowing” because of attrition. He also would pump new money into medical and psychological treatment.
The steps reflect the a widely held view among military leaders that the Pentagon must devote more of its resources to small, irregular fights as opposed to large-scale wars.
“We must rebalance this department’s programs in order to institutionalize and finance our capabilities to fight the wars we are in today and the scenarios we are most likely to face in the years ahead,” Gates said, while also remaining on guard for larger confrontations.
All of the changes would require the approval of Congress, which frequently overrides the military’s efforts to alter spending programs.
The overall size of the defense budget, $534 billion, had been announced earlier. But Gates had not outlined his spending priorities before Monday.
Under his plan, 50 percent of the budget would be used to counter conventional threats, with about 10 percent going to go irregular warfare and 40 percent to weapons that are useful to both.
“I’m not trying to have irregular capabilities take the place of the conventional capabilities,” Gates said. “I’m just trying to get the irregular guys to have a seat at the table.”
Gates said he knew his recommendations would be controversial but said he did not take politics into account. But Gates said the cuts in some areas were necessary to overcome shortages in others.
Winslow Wheeler, a defense budget expert at the Center for Defense Information, said that will be the strongest argument Gates has as he pushes his proposal with Congress.
“There is going to be a very ugly food fight,” he said, adding that Gates and President Barack Obama could win a likely congressional showdown “if they make it clear in terminating the programs we can make ourselves stronger.”
Gates’ proposals met with mixed reactions within the Pentagon itself. Officials opposed to cuts in programs like the F-22 felt the new spending plan placed too much priority on functions such as intelligence-gathering.
Some Air Force officials felt that their service would be deeply wounded by the cuts. “This is one of the worst days I can ever recall for the U.S. Air Force in peacetime,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute with close ties to the defense industry.
But supporters of Gates’ plan said the shifts have been long needed.
Soon after Gates was named defense secretary in 2006, he criticized spending procedures and priorities.
“He came here to fix the war, but in the process of trying to fix the war, he ran into institutional hurdles,” said one defense official, describing Gates’ thinking, on condition of anonymity. “He realized to fix the war he had to fix the institution.”
Gates said Monday he was recommending putting $2 billion more into surveillance aircraft, including a big increase in armed Predator and Reaper drones.
He also is adding $500 million to deploy more helicopters, speeding the purchase of a new Navy ship designed to fight in coastal waters, and expanding U.S. Special Operations forces by 2,800 troops.
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Among Pentagon’s cuts
* Eliminate the vehicle program portion of the Army’s Future Combat Systems project. Overall savings: $87 billion.
* Halt production of the C-17 cargo plane. Savings not given.
*Cap production of F-22 (pictured) at 187 planes, without further purchases. Savings: $140 million per jet.
*Terminate VH-71 presidential helicopter fleet. Overall savings:
$13 billion.
*Cuts in the U.S. strategic missile defense program. Savings: $1.4 billion.
*Halt development of a new air force bomber. Savings not given.
*Slow development of new aircraft carriers. Savings not given.
*Terminate Air Force Combat Search and Rescue X helicopter program. Savings not given.
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