Gates to Cut Marine Vehicle, Plans $178 Billion Cuts
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will terminate the Marine Corps’s Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle as part of $178 billion in cuts over the next 5 years, lawmakers said after a meeting with Gates.
Of the $178 billion, $100 billion would be shifted to other priorities in the Defense Department. The remaining $78 billion would be a reduction of the Pentagon’s spending plan for the next five years, said Representative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, the California Republican who is the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
“I don’t like it, but he has been working on these things for a long time and I just got hit with this,” McKeon said when asked if he agreed with Gates’s plan. “I need some time to think about this a little bit.”
Lawmakers spoke to reporters after Gates briefed members of Congress today on the Pentagon’s fiscal 2012 budget. Gates has committed to reducing overhead and inefficiencies at the Defense Department by about $102 billion through 2016, starting with about $7 billion in 2012. He is seeking support from lawmakers to forestall further cuts in weapons and research spending.
Gates also plans to delay by two years the Marine Corps version of the F-35 jet made by Lockheed Martin Corp., Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said in a brief interview after the meeting.
$554 Billion
The Pentagon will propose in February a 1 percent increase in overall defense spending for 2012 compared with the proposed 2011 budget, McKeon said citing Gates. The Pentagon’s 2013 budget will rise a half-percent over 2012 and “the next three years will flat line,” McKeon said.
The Pentagon’s proposed 2011 budget is $548.9 billion excluding war-related costs, and a 1 percent increase over that would be $554.4 billion. Congress is yet to approve the Pentagon’s 2011 budget.
Gates told lawmakers that after five years, if the Pentagon’s budget does not increase by 2 percent to 3 percent annually, then “force structure will be the only area left to cut,” McKeon said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington at gratnam1@bloomberg.net Roxana Tiron in Washington at rtiron@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net
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