{"id":247303,"date":"2010-01-29T15:00:07","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T20:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=75201"},"modified":"2010-01-29T15:00:07","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T20:00:07","slug":"pentagon-planning-document-eyes-navy-air-force-programs-for-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/247303","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon Planning Document Eyes Navy, Air Force Programs for Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_75202\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 490px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/gates-mullen.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-75202\" title=\"Gates Mullen\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/gates-mullen-480x320.jpg\" alt=\"Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen (Oscar Matatquin\/ZUMA Press)\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen (Oscar Matatquin\/ZUMA Press)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>President Obama <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/74974\/defense-analysts-blast-military-exemption-to-spending-freeze\">announced<\/a> in his State of the Union address that national security programs would  not be subject to his proposed spending freeze. But that hasn&#8217;t stopped  Pentagon officials from placing what they consider to be outdated  military programs in the budgetary icebox.<\/p>\n<p>In its master  planning document for the medium-term defense outlook, known as the  Quadrennial Defense Review, the Pentagon will announce cuts to some Navy  and Air Force programs. The Pentagon will not purchase any more of the  costly C-17 transport aircraft for the Air Force. It will delay purchase  of the Navy&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.navy.mil\/navydata\/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&amp;tid=500&amp;ct=4\">LCC  command ship<\/a>. It will cancel production of the Navy&#8217;s planned <a href=\"http:\/\/www.navy.com\/about\/shipsequipment\/navyofthefuture\/cgx\/\">CG(X)  cruiser<\/a>. And it will contend that these steps and others are  necessary for reorienting the U.S.&#8217;s defense posture around the wars the  U.S. is fighting now and the threats it presently faces.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_2848\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 140px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2848\" title=\"nationalsecurity\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/nationalsecurity.jpg\" alt=\"Image by: Matt Mahurin\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by: Matt Mahurin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"floatButtons\">\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"\n\tsrc=\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/ds\/badge2.js\"\n\tbadgetype=\"square\">\n\t<?php the_permalink(); ?><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\">\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_source = \"TWI_news\";\ntweetmeme_service = \"bit.ly\";\n<\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> According  to a knowledgeable Defense official who requested anonymity, the cuts  in the QDR will not be as extensive as the ones announced in last year&#8217;s  Pentagon budget. Last spring, Defense Secretary Robert Gates <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/37503\/gates-663-billion-budget-changes-defense-priorities\">ended  several persistent, expensive and underutilized or unproven defense  systems<\/a> like the F-22 fighter jet and the Army&#8217;s Future Combat  Systems vehicle, steps lauded by defense reformers and the subject of a  tough but successful congressional fight. Those cuts &#8220;created the space  for the QDR to focus on areas of reinvestment,&#8221; the Defense official  told TWI.<\/p>\n<p>The QDR is scheduled to be unveiled on Monday.  Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael  Mullen, will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on  Tuesday about both the QDR and the fiscal 2011 defense budget, the first  budget guided by the new document. An early draft of the QDR that  leaked to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/story.php?i=4473477\">Defense  News<\/a> and InsideDefense on Wednesday did not identify the three  systems as slated for cuts, and the Pentagon official said the final  document will change substantially from the version that leaked.<\/p>\n<p>Delaying  production of the LCC and canceling the CG(X) would probably not &#8220;equal  a big cost savings,&#8221; said Laicie Olson, a defense analyst at the Center  for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, since it is unclear how much  replacing those systems with different ones would cost. But ending the  C-17, manufactured by Boeing, would be a &#8220;huge cost saving,&#8221; she said,  representing an estimated $2.5 billion &#8212; that is, if the administration  can persuade Congress to stop authorizing the purchase of a plane that  provides about 30,000 jobs in more than 40 states.<\/p>\n<p>In any  event, the budget request the Obama administration will send to  Congress next week is <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/74974\/defense-analysts-blast-military-exemption-to-spending-freeze\">expected  to total $740 billion<\/a> when factoring in the cost of sending 30,000  additional troops to Afghanistan, up from $663 billion last year. But  when not factoring in the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the  Pentagon budget is <a href=\"http:\/\/thecable.foreignpolicy.com\/posts\/2010\/01\/13\/obamas_promise_for_honest_war_budgeting_not_kept\">expected  to grow by 2 percent over last year<\/a>, or about the rate of  inflation.<\/p>\n<p>Both the QDR and the anticipated cuts reflect the  document&#8217;s reorientation of Pentagon thinking, planning and budgetary  decisions toward immediate and manifested threats over the next four  years &#8212; principally the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan, which the  leaked draft anticipates continuing throughout the four-year life of the  QDR &#8212; and away from remote or hypothetical ones. The 2010 document  abandons a construct of its predecessors that instructs the military to  prepare to fight two simultaneous conventional wars, the result of  painful experience fighting two simultaneous unconventional wars in Iraq  and Afghanistan that earlier QDRs did not envision.<\/p>\n<p>Rather  than instruct the military to prepare for particular conflicts against  particular enemies, the 2010 QDR will <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/story.php?i=4473390\">instruct<\/a> it  instead to defend against demonstrated enemy capabilities and to support  specific missions. Those missions include supporting civilian  authorities, improving cyberspace capabilities and performing  counterinsurgency, counterterrorism and stability operations &#8212; the  first time a QDR has embraced these once-marginal functions as core  Pentagon capabilities. It instructs the military to deter, counter and  defeat weapons of mass destruction and &#8220;anti-access capabilities&#8221;  possessed by adversaries, like missiles and cyber defenses that inhibit  the U.S.&#8217;s ability to project its military power. And the document <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/dangerroom\/2010\/01\/pentagon-master-plan-super-size-my-drone-fleet\/\">urges<\/a> the military to increase its supply and use of remotely piloted  vehicles like the drones used by the Air Force in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This  QDR focuses on the wars we are actually fighting, not the wars we  sometimes wished we were fighting,&#8221; the official said, adding that a  &#8220;hypothetical calculus&#8221; like the abandoned two-wars concept that did not  focus on specific capabilities had &#8220;done far more harm than good.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In  particular, the QDR instructs the military to counter &#8220;ballistic  missiles, anti-satellite capabilities and other systems&#8221; that  adversaries can use to deter the U.S., the Pentagon official previewed.  While it does not call out particular enemies and focuses instead on the  capabilities they might possess, &#8220;we argue that the proliferation of  some of these things to non-state actors will also magnify the problem  &#8212; think <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/07\/19\/world\/middleeast\/19missile.html?_r=1\">Hezbollah  using anti-ship missiles in 2006<\/a>&#8221; during its war with Israel, the  official said.<\/p>\n<p>The QDR also emphasizes that military forces  require &#8220;seamless integration&#8221; with a &#8220;range of civilian and military  partners,&#8221; both from within the civilian sectors of the U.S. government  and across the international community. But Raymond Pritchett, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.informationdissemination.net\/\">one of the leading naval  bloggers<\/a>, said that delaying the LCC command ship, a platform that  allows several militaries to network together aboard essentially a  floating headquarters, appeared at odds with the broader approach. &#8220;The  command ship is a big deal,&#8221; Pritchett said. &#8220;If your stated strategic  direction is partnership with other countries, the last thing you want  to do is get rid of a platform that brings all those capabilities  together.&#8221; He worried that delaying the LCC indicated that &#8220;the Navy is  disconnected from strategy.&#8221; But some contend that the Navy&#8217;s advanced  communications infrastructure means the LCC is no longer required for  the Navy to operate alongside partner militaries.<\/p>\n<p>By  contrast, Pritchett saw the cancellation of the CG(X) as an  inevitability that will cause the Navy to redesign its cruisers and  destroyers into a single ship class. &#8220;From the perspective of defense  reform, it&#8217;s a good thing, standardized to one hull,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Whether  Congress will accept the cuts is an open question. The C-17 transport  plane has limited utility in a war like Afghanistan, since the plane is  too big for most of the country&#8217;s available landing space, but the plane  has a lot of legislative allies. &#8220;They&#8217;ve tried to cut the C-17 before,  and it hasn&#8217;t worked. They can&#8217;t get the cut through Congress,&#8221; Olson  said. &#8220;As far as delays, that&#8217;s usually easier to get through. But those 30,000 jobs are going to be a kicker.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Similarly,  the Pentagon is preparing for a struggle with the Hill and the press  about the anticipated cuts &#8212; and the focus of the QDR itself.  Emphasizing the need to counter threatening capabilities rather than  specific enemies opens the administration up to the political argument  that it is neglecting particular U.S. adversaries. Monday and Tuesday  will be filled with extensive press briefings, think-tank lectures and  congressional testimony from Gates, Mullen and Michele Flournoy, the  undersecretary of defense for policy, whose subordinates conducted the  QDR process.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll take some hits for not having a  bumper-sticker force planning construct, but screw it,&#8221; the Pentagon  official said. &#8220;The world is complicated.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen (Oscar Matatquin\/ZUMA Press) President Obama announced in his State of the Union address that national security programs would not be subject to his proposed spending freeze. But that hasn&#8217;t stopped Pentagon officials from placing what they consider to be outdated military [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}