Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned against a "devastating" second round of defense cuts on Thursday as the Pentagon stepped up its campaign to convince Congress to look elsewhere for savings as it works to trim the $1.4 trillion deficit/.../The Pentagon already had been planning for cuts in the $400 billion range, spread over 12 years, at Obama's direction in April.
Todd Harrison, a defense analyst at the independent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said in a recent report that the U.S. military essentially has the same size, force structure and capabilities as it did a decade ago but costs 35 percent more in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Pentagon spending on personnel is about $121,600 per individual, a figure that includes base pay, allowances, medical, retirement and other benefits, he said.