CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– DEFENSE
April 5, 2009 – 10:23 a.m.
Gates Plans Big Shift in Defense Spending
By Josh Rogin, CQ Staff
The Defense Department’s priorities in how spends its money and how it sets priorities is about to undergo a “fundamental shift,” with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates scheduled to announce his strategy on Monday
The fiscal 2010 funding choices in the announcement will represent the first major defense policy decisions of President Obama’s administration. Specific budget details are not expected until the first week of May, but Gates will make the unusual move of announcing several major program decisions weeks ahead of the budget release, said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.
“These are not changes to the margins,” Morrell said April 3. “This is a fundamental shift in direction. And the secretary’s point of view argues for an unconventional approach in explaining that shift to the American people.”
Morrell said Gates plans to brief congressional leaders Monday morning. A press conference will follow.
“The fact of life is that since Sept. 11, 2001, the military has been engaged in irregular warfare activities that require more of our focus, more of our energy, and more of our resources than we have been dedicating to them,” Morrell said. “So Gates is trying to shift between the large-scale conventional near peer conflicts that we have to prepare for down the line and the very real conflicts we are engaged in now.”
The timing of the announcement allows Gates to present the strategic rationale for the decisions at once, rather than having individuals criticize the decisions piecemeal as they leak out.
“Gates’ hope is that by revealing it all at once and by explaining it in depth and explaining the strategic rationale for all of these decisions, that people will view it as a whole and not get focused on the individual decisions and not let their parochial interests overcome the fact that it is in our national interests to make these adjustments to the whole of the budget,” Morrell said.
Although Gates repeatedly has warned that no final decisions have been made about specific program cuts, defense officials have noted that some are at serious risk — particularly those that are poor performers or cannot be connected with a current threat.
The programs many expect to face huge cuts or cancellation include the Army’s Future Combat Systems program; the Transformational Communications Satellite program; the Navy’s DDG-1000 destroyer program; and the VH-71 presidential helicopter program. Some cuts or procurement delays are also expected for the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft program.
Ballistic missile defense, which represents the Pentagon’s largest acquisitions program, also could be on the chopping block. Futuristic missile defense components are at particular risk, including the Airborne Laser Program, the Kinetic Energy Interceptor, the Space Based Interceptor, along with plans to begin construction on two missile defense sites in Eastern Europe.
Many observers on Capitol Hill are also anxiously awaiting what Gates might say about the fate of the Pentagon’s troubled effort to buy a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers, whether the new administration wants to build a new bomber aircraft, and whether the president wants to continue buying F-22 Raptor fighters.
Sources said the president wants to cap the number of F-22s at around 250, which would ensure three more years of production after the current limit of 183 planes is reached this year.
According to a blueprint released in February, Obama will ask for $533.7 billion in discretionary spending in fiscal 2010. That number is $20.4 billion, or about 4 percent, higher than the $513.3 billion appropriated in fiscal 2009.
For fiscal 2010 war funding, the administration will request $130 billion at the same time the base budget request is made.
Obama also plans this week to send Congress a request for a second tranche of fiscal 2009 war funding, which will include $75.5 billion for the Defense Department and about $7.1 billion for the State Department and foreign operations.
Comments
I have seen multiple BRAC's and QDR's come and go and none have ever produced anything of a transformational nature. If Secretary Gates produces a budget that results in anything than nibble at the margins, I will be shocked. There is nothing that will produce consensus more than protection of weapon systems, contractors desires, jobs and money. The factual contribution to our future Defense is often far down on the list. New advanced air craft when we have total air superiority, new tanks and artillery when there is nothing that can out perform ours, 2 new nuclear submarines, another new carrier, are just examples of low marginal improvements at high cost. The contractors and lobbyists will use fear tactics as will the Congress whose districts will lose jobs, all the while touting the need and in the process taking funding away from family housing, recurring maintenance and the less sexy requirements that are critical to having a strong National Defense. Its not about the threat, its all about the Benjamin's
For $30 billion/yr, we could end world hunger. Wouldn't that be something - cut the boondoggles in space and actually stand on a stage in 2010saying "we've ended world hunger." Here's an idea - the entire military budget cannot be more than 2 times the domestic spending on health, education and infrastructure, or 5 times the State Department budget, whichever is smaller. Oh, I know how how hard it is to keep Americans safe with shrinking budgets - take it from me. As an employee of a psychiatric hospital, I'd like to recommend to the joint chiefs: used book sales, cookie sales and raffles. That's what we have to do to have the funds to keep our Americans' safe.
Harry Sohl..Amen to that..The Rah Rah crew baking cookies..great suggestion.
Gates goes way back to the October Surprise of G.H.W.Bush, and don't deserve to be trusted.
Harry, how will we distribute this $30 billion a year without it going straight into the pockets of corrupt local governments? Do you remember Somalia? Or do you simply expect us to be greeted as humanitarians?
Oh my, we could never end world hunger for any amount money, let alone $30 Billion. A nice thought, but a bit naive. We spend $billions in our own country and we still have a portion of our population that is perpetually in poor condition. Making people dependent on govt aid may feel good, but it just doesn't work in the long run. Money spent on security and defense is proven to be far more effective in improving the lives of the downtroden than an influx of government aid. The cuts Gates/Obama are making in Defense are good, but we need to make similar and more drastic cuts to our entitlement programs.
The only shift I want to see is to a smaller defense department with a smaller budget. What I suspect Gates is talking about is still massive, still sucking up money we need for other things, only moved sideways into new "priorities." Bah!
It would be a shame to see the third DDG-1000 funding be stopped when billions have already been spent on this program. The CCN news program with Lou Dobbs points out the latest missle threat from China and it is factual that the DDG-1000 may be the only defence that this country has for our national security. Considering the idea of starting up the DDG-51 Class to replace the DDG-1000 is moving our national defense backwards and throwing away billions of tax payers dollars that have already been spent. The impact on our shipbuilding and industrial base and the creation of jobs must be only an after thought to some of our leaders. The idea of base closures to me is nothing more then a loss of jobs at a time when we can't afford to loose anymore as well as the fact that what municipality can cureently afford to do something with the properties when done? To save cost it sure seems to be a costly action.
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