Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel released a $526 billion Pentagon budget Wednesday amid a climate of fiscal uncertainty, but he said the United States was prepared to respond if a conflict breaks out on the Korean Peninsula where tensions are running high/.../
[T]he Pentagon is moving away from the emphasis on counterinsurgency warfare that characterized fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.
The Pentagon is shifting the training and organization of its forces toward "full spectrum" operations, which includes a greater emphasis on conventional combat involving the coordination of tanks, artillery and air support.
The budget was based on an assumption that the White House and Congress agree to a deficit reduction plan that eliminates automatic cuts known as the sequester. That has led some analysts to question the budget's validity. "That's not a safe assumption," said Todd Harrison, a budget expert at the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
The defense budget is more than $50 billion over the cap set by the Budget Control Act. That means when the spending plan goes into effect Oct. 1, it will have to be cut automatically unless a deficit-reduction plan is reached or savings elsewhere in the federal budget can be shifted to the Pentagon.
Neither option is likely, Harrison says. More likely is that the military will scramble again to make cuts, once again furloughing civilian employees -- or laying them off permanently. Another option, being used to meet sequestration requirements, is to cut training. That reduces the military's readiness to fight wars, Harrison said.