Defense Budget Review May Question Two-War Strategy, Secretary Gates Says
Robert Gates, U.S. secretary of defense, listens during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington in this file photo. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon’s budget review will help the president and Congress weigh the risks of cutting weapons programs and the size of the armed forces.
Gates, in opening remarks to reporters at a Pentagon press conference, said the review may include changing basic tenets of Pentagon planning, including the core assumption that the military must be prepared to fight two major regional wars simultaneously, and maintain a “triad” of nuclear arms.
President Barack Obama in April announced a 12-year deficit reduction plan, including a goal of holding growth in Pentagon spending, not including Iraq and Afghanistan, below inflation, for an estimated $400 billion in savings. That’s on top of $78 billion the White House earlier directed be saved through 2016 for deficit reduction.
“I want this review to provide the substance for making those kinds of conscientious decisions where the political leadership of the country says we are prepared to accept this risk in return for reduced investment in defense,” Gates said.
Gates today fleshed out how the Pentagon over the next few months will draft the options for achieving the $400 billion goal. The review will include looking for management efficiencies, and a “serious examination” of policies that “drive dramatic” increases in health care, compensation, retirement and infrastructure.
The review will also craft options to reduce or “eliminate marginal missions and capabilities” and specialized or costly programs “that are useful in only a limited range of circumstances,” Gates said without elaboration.
Hardest Category
These assessments will feed into the “hardest category” - - a reexamination of the broad strategies guiding the U.S. military “that translate into options for reductions in force structure or capability needed to execute the strategy,” Gates said.
“We can’t afford to have anything that’s off the table,” he said, including the review of basic military strategy, the nation’s nuclear triad of missiles, submarines and aircraft, and the Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) F-35 fighter, the Pentagon’s largest program.
“It has been our strategy for many years now to be able to fight two major regional conflicts simultaneously” but “if you were to tell yourself the likelihood of having two such fights simultaneously is low and you can plan to fight sequentially, that would have huge implications,” Gates said.
Then there is the risk “if you are wrong,” he said.
“That’s the kind strategy and risk we want to surface for the president and Congress.”
Quadrennial Review
Gates said the assessment, which is intended to influence the 2013 plan to be released in February, will use a starting point the assumptions and scenarios contained in the February 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.
The review will allow policy makers to see the impact of changing QDR strategy on force structure, missions, and capabilities, he said.
Gates said the F-35 program will be assessed as part of the broader context.
“Obviously, if you’re going to change strategies or missions, that has implications for the amount of equipment that you buy and I would expect that to apply across the board, not just to the F-35,” he said.
Gates reiterated his support for the F-35 program as well as the new aerial refueling tanker to be made by Boeing Co. (BA), a replacement for the nation’s ballistic submarines, and the need to repair billions of dollars in worn out Army equipment and vehicles.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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