By Charles Hoskinson
IT’S SHOWTIME – Panetta and Dempsey today will roll out the first details of how DOD wants to spend its money under a mandate to trim $487 billion from planned spending over 10 years.
THEY’RE EXPECTED to argue at the 2 p.m. briefing that the budget decisions are in line with the strategy outlined by Obama earlier this month for a leaner, more agile military that focuses primarily on fighting terrorism and protecting U.S. interests in the Pacific as China becomes stronger and more assertive. Later, Carter and Winnefeld will provide additional details on spending.
PANETTA, DEMPSEY AND CARTER BRIEFED KEY LAWMAKERS from the Armed Services and Appropriations panels on the details Wednesday night. A senior defense official tells us the secretary “walked Hill leaders through how the Pentagon used the recently issued strategic guidance to arrive at program decisions required to achieve cuts the Congress mandated while keeping our military the strongest in the world. The secretary, a former congressman, asked members for their support to implement the department’s plans and to take action to stop the sequester threat.”
AMONG THE LAWMAKERS WAS SMITH, HASC’s ranking Democrat, who told us: “The administration has done a very good job of drafting a budget that meets our strategic needs. The budget reflects a sound understanding of the threats we face, and matches the resources to meet those threats. As the Department of Defense begins to release its budget for FY2013, it is also important to understand that the top-line budget numbers are based on the Budget Control Act, which was passed by Congress with support from both parties. Congress – specifically the Budget Committee – sets the top-line numbers and the Administration must act within those confines.”
MATCHING THE NUMBERS TO THE STRATEGY is a major concern of GOP members, who want to be sure the military has enough firepower to do what it’s ordered to do. We caught up with HASC Chairman McKeon before the meeting, and he said he’s also worried about how quickly the cuts can be reversed if the world suddenly becomes more dangerous. “How do they plan to minimize the impact on the industrial base?” he asked. “How do they reverse the shelving of ships and aircraft that we just don’t buy? When we cut 100,000 troops out of the Army and Marine Corps, how do you get the experience back overnight?”
MCKEON SAYS HE’S ALSO CONCERNED about the president’s overall view of the threats faced by the United States, especially when it comes to nuclear weapons policy. “It’s like we live in a peaceful world in his mind.”
NOW ON TO THE BUDGET – As Smith noted, the expected topline in the new budget plan of about $513 billion is a function of current spending minus the percentage needed to meet the reductions required by law. It’s the details that are likely to spark the most debate. IMPORTANT REMINDER – War funding, which is already expected to decline in fiscal 2013 with the U.S. exit from Iraq and the winding down of operations in Afghanistan, is NOT counted in calculating the $487 billion reduction.
THE BIGGEST LOSER is expected to be the Army, which likely will drop below 500,000 troops as DOD funding is shifted to other priorities. There’s also a keen interest in what will happen to the service’s modernization plans after years of spending billions of dollars on weapons systems that were never fielded.
THERE’S ALSO A KEEN INTEREST in whether the Navy’s plan to increase the size of its fleet will be fully funding. Navy leaders have wanted to go from the current 285 ships to 313 – in line with the new Pacific-focused strategy – but have also acknowledged the budget pressure against such an increase.
THE F-35 PROGRAM looks set to survive major cuts, but the purchase of 13 of 42 jets planned for fiscal 2013 will be put off as the buying schedule slips past 2017, Bloomberg’s Anthony Capaccio reports. His story is here: http://buswk.co/x4aVsw
THE LOBBYING HAS ALREADY BEGUN – The Air Force Association today is releasing a letter signed by former secretaries and retired generals calling on HASC and SASC leaders to ensure that the Air Force has sufficient funds to modernize its aging fleet and invest in new technologies. “Major recapitalization was deferred for the past twenty years, yielding a fleet that averages a quarter of a century in age. In fact, many airmen are now flying combat missions in aircraft that pre-date the Cuban Missile Crisis,” they wrote. The letter is here: http://bit.ly/xsfPrV
A CONTENTIOUS DEBATE over arming Army medevac helicopters sparked by the death of a soldier whose wounding in Afghanistan was videotaped by an embedded blogger is spilling into the halls of Congress. The blogger, Michael Yon, has lobbied fiercely for arming the medevac choppers since his report about Army Spc. Chazray Clark, who was severely wounded Sept. 18 when he stepped on an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Kandahar province. Due in part to the lack of an armed escort for the medevac chopper, it took medics about an hour to get Clark, who lost an arm and both legs in the explosion, back to the hospital at Kandahar Airfield. Our story is here: http://politi.co/xNbn4l
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