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Defense Faces More Pressure from US Deficit Panel
The commission faces a Dec. 1 deadline for at least 14 of the 18 members to agree to send a report to Congress. Even then it is not clear if lawmakers would embrace the ideas. “If anyone needed a wake-up call that the growth in defense spending that we’ve experienced over the past decade is coming to an end, then this was it,” said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. Because of the approvals that would be necessary to put the proposals into action, “it’s highly unlikely that this would be adopted in its current form,” he added.
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Cartwright Sees ‘50-50’ Chance to Avoid Defense Cuts
Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst with the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, said Cartwright didn’t address whether the Pentagon will actually be able to achieve the planned efficiency savings. “If history is any indicator, they won’t be able to save as much as they think,” Harrison said.
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American Götterdämerung Is a Perennial Pundit’s Game
Edelman last month unveiled a counterview to the NIC study, “Understanding America’s Contested Primacy,” published by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a defense policy think tank in Washington, D.C. At a briefing on Capitol Hill, Edelman cautioned that much of what is in Global Trends 2025 is accurate analysis. But he questioned why the NIC in 2008 painted such a drastically different picture from the one laid out in its 2004 report, “Mapping the Global Future 2020,” which had concluded that the era of unipolarity and U.S. primacy was likely to continue for as far as the eye could see, Edelman said. “What was it that changed so dramatically between 2004 and 2008 that would lead to this radically different conclusion?” he asked.
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F-35 Engine Too Big to Carry to Carriers
Another example, one analyst says, of the military procurement system not adequately looking ahead when dreaming up weapons projects. “You’ve got a very complex aircraft — and there are many, many interesting technologies in this — where it’s tough enough to consider the operational and technological factors,” said Jan van Tol of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “But apparently, they’ve not looked as carefully at second- and third-order issues.”
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Gates Seeking to Contain Military Health Costs
Defense budget analysts say that rising health care costs will make less money available for new weapons, repairs to a worn-out arsenal and quality-of-life programs like schools on military bases. “In the long run, it could actually limit our ability to field a military of sufficient size,” said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington.
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The Insurgency is the Retreat
On the broader strategic front Lieberman told the Foreign Policy Initiative conference that he consistently hears from allies “unmistakable uncertainty about our staying power.” His comment echoed recent statements by Sen. McCain, Rep. Buck McKeon, presumptive chair of the House Armed Services Committee, and a host of commentators that America may be in a state of global decline. Addressing and correcting what he clearly believes is a misperception, Lieberman said, “is in our national interest.” The recent report issued by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments tackled this argument head on.