By Charles Hoskinson

NOW THAT THE CURTAIN HAS BEEN PULLED BACK on the administration’s plans for a leaner military, the expected reactions are pouring in, with Republicans calling it a recipe for American weakness and progressives expressing disappointment that the cuts to defense spending weren’t deeper.

HASC READINESS SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMAN Randy Forbes said it “embraces weakness by a thousand cuts,” echoing the expected GOP line. Added Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, a SASC member: “We must not allow misguided defense cuts to add a national security crisis to our existing fiscal crisis.”

REP. BARBARA LEE (D-Calif.) joined three other progressive Democrats in a letter urging Obama to consider even deeper cuts than the $487 billion over 10 years required by law. “There are several additional areas where the United States can realize much greater savings without compromising our security,” they wrote, including a complete U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan this year and deeper cuts to the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The letter also was signed by Reps. Barney Frank, Rush Holt and Lynn Woolsey.

OUR STORY ON THURSDAY’S DOD ROLLOUT is here: http://politi.co/xdFWau. The DOD budget plan is here: http://1.usa.gov/ytFtjo

THE UPCOMING FIGHT OVER DOD SPENDING is likely to be as much about the little things as the bigger picture, despite Panetta and Carter’s plea to look at the proposal as a “balanced” package.

DOA – Many lawmakers immediately slammed the door on the administration’s call for another BRAC round to evaluate possible base closings. “Another round of BRAC is ridiculous,” HASC Vice Chairman Mac Thornberry told us, noting that it would probably cost more than it saved in the near-term, negating its value for deficit reduction.

CARTER RESPONDED ON PBS, saying, “If we have … unneeded basing structure in our armed forces in a time when we’re trying to deal with the deficit reduction, national security imperative that we face, how can we not put on the table unneeded basing structure?” http://to.pbs.org/x2EUfI

WHILE PRAISING THE DECISION to maintain the Navy’s 11 carriers, some members also decried efforts to shrink the fleet, with HASC Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Todd Akin (R-Mo.) signaling a fight on this issue. “It is stunning that the president would announce a strategy and then cut the Navy who will be called on to execute this strategy,” he said.

VETERANS GROUPS ARE GOING TO BE WATCHING how plans to revamp military benefits play out. The administration’s plan calls for a slowing in the growth of military pay after 2014 and higher health care fees for retirees, but punts the more contentious issue of retirement reform to a BRAC-style commission. “The defense guidance outlined today focused heavily on downsizing to a smaller, leaner force … but it did not provide concrete specifics on the true, long-term impact on military pay, healthcare costs and retirement benefits for this generation,” IAVA Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff said. “Our community is already facing daunting unemployment rates and a suicide epidemic here at home. It’s absolutely critical that this final plan protects and bolsters the programs, services and benefits our troops need to transition home and support their families long-term.”

NORTHROP GRUMMAN MEANWHILE pushed back against the proposed cancelation of the Global Hawk Block 30 long-range surveillance drone program in favor of continued use of manned U-2 aircraft. “Global Hawk is the modern solution to providing surveillance. It provides long duration persistent surveillance, and collects information using multiple sensors on the platform. In contrast, the aging U-2 program, first introduced in the 1950s, places pilots in danger, has limited flight duration, and provides limited sensor capacity,” the company said in a statement.

BUT CARTER SAID THE PROGRAM had violated the new benchmark for DOD spending: “We had hoped to replace the U-2 with the Global Hawk, but the Global Hawk became expensive. And that’s the fate of things that become too expensive in a resource-constrained environment.”

SEQUESTRATION UPDATE – Panetta expressed his hope Thursday that the “tough” cuts he outlined would prod lawmakers to find a way to avoid the additional $500 billion in automatic reductions prompted by the debt-reduction supercommittee’s failure before they start to take effect next January.

THORNBERRY TELLS US THAT’S POSSIBLE – “When one sees these cuts it makes it more imperative than ever that we find some way to find substantial savings” elsewhere in the federal budget, he said. “I think there’s interest on both sides of the aisle to do that.”

BUT REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS are still far apart on one key issue: taxes. We caught up with SASC Chairman Levin at a breakfast Thursday and he said he’s counting on public pressure to push the GOP to accept new tax revenues as part of any solution – something they’ve so far refused to consider. Meanwhile, Levin and other Democrats won’t budge on reversing sequestration except as part of a complete package. “The dam has got to be broken on revenues, and what I believe will break it is the threat of sequestration,” he said.

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