Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Wednesday his intent to "reform and reshape" the military -- from paying personnel to buying weapons -- to deal with deep budget cuts the Pentagon faces.
Hagel's speech at the National Defense University was billed by the Pentagon as his first major policy address. It comes as the Pentagon pares $41 billion from its $600 billion budget forced by automatic budget cuts known as sequestration and about $500 billion more over the next decade if Congress and the White House don't agree on a plan to reduce the federal deficit.
"This effort will by necessity consider big choices that could lead to fundamental change and a further prioritization of the use of our resources," Hagel said. "Change that involves not just tweaking or chipping away at existing structures or practices but where necessary fashioning entirely new ones that are better suited to 21st-century challenges."
Hagel's speech, however, lacked specific details about the type of cuts he'd make, said Todd Harrison, a military budget expert at the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Hagel said the cuts could be done and quality maintained -- a stance his predecessor, Leon Panetta, refused to take.
"He used the speech to frame the questions," Harrison said of Hagel. "He stopped well short of providing any answers."
Hagel's predecessors also have targeted runaway spending on weapons systems and growth in personnel costs with limited success. Former Defense secretary Robert Gates killed plans for the Army's suite of new ground-combat vehicles and the Marines' landing craft and capped the purchase of the Air Force's F-22 fighter. Those actions happened after billions had already been spent.
Personnel costs, particularly benefits, have continued to rise at unsustainable levels. Harrison has noted that personnel costs are growing so fast that they will consume the entire Pentagon budget by 2039.
If Hagel is serious about military entitlement reform, Harrison said, he could propose changes that trade health care benefits for something personnel value more: higher pay.