http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-01-06-gates-budget_N.htm
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates, citing the country's "dire fiscal situation," announced Thursday that U.S. ground forces will be cut by up to 47,000 troops in 2015 as part of Pentagon belt-tightening.
The Pentagon, like all government departments, will have to live with slimmer budgets, given "the nation's grim financial outlook," Gates said.
The White House has ordered the Pentagon to budget for relatively small annual increases for the next five years. Its budget next year will be $553 billion, or $13 billion less than expected, but still 3% higher than last year.
In all, Gates announced plans that will allow the military to save $150 billion over five years in part by cutting some programs such as the Marines' $15 billion amphibious-landing craft program.
The money saved by the services will be transferred to other programs, such as buying more drones for the Air Force and to pay for higher-than-expected costs for fuel, health care and other bills.
The loss of 27,000 Army soldiers and as many as 20,000 Marines won't take effect until after the wars in
Iraq and
Afghanistan have been wound down, Gates said. The reduction will leave the Army with more soldiers than when Gates took charge of the Pentagon in 2006. The Army has about 550,000 soldiers, up about 40,000 since Gates became Defense Secretary in 2006. There are about 200,000 Marines, up from 175,000.
Reducing the ground forces would save about $6 billion in 2015 and 2016, according to the Pentagon.
Cutting troop levels is easier to announce than it is to enact, said
Thomas Donnelly, a military analyst at
American Enterprise Institute, a think tank. He pointed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "These wars have an annoying habit of lasting longer and requiring more troops than Pentagon planners would prefer," Donnelly said.
Gates acknowledged that predictions for 2015 are made with a "pretty cloudy crystal ball," and decisions on troop levels and other cuts could change.
Adm.
Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the top officers in each service supported the plan.
The Marine Corps Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is the highest-profile casualty of the cost cutting. In development since the
Reagan administration, the lander is designed to launch beyond the range of most missiles and guns, and skim across water at high speed to allow Marines to storm beaches.
The Marines have spent $3 billion to develop it and needed an additional $12 billion to build a fleet of 600 vehicles. It has been plagued by reliability problems and cost overruns.
"As with several other high-end programs canceled in recent years, the mounting cost of acquiring this specialized capability must be judged against other priorities and needs," Gates said.
In the past, Gates criticized the vehicle for its flat bottom, a vulnerability to the buried bombs that have been the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He also has noted that the EFV could be vulnerable to anti-ship missiles. U.S.-designated terrorist group
Hezbollah, for example, hit an Israeli ship with a missile that has a range is 75 miles, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The Marine Corps will receive money to design a new amphibious lander that is more affordable, Gates said. Meantime, it will upgrade its existing landers with new engines, electronics and weaponry.
In the end, cost — not threats from bombs or missiles — probably sunk the EFV, said Dakota Wood, a retired Marine officer and military analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
"The EFV's chief vulnerability in this debate is its cost and delay in development," he said.
Savings from the EFV and other programs cut by the services total more than $70 billion and will be spent on more urgent priorities, Gates said.
For example, the Army will fund better suicide prevention and drug counseling.
