Military leaders have adapted US strategy as the Pentagon faces major budget cuts, but experts fear the new plans could be shattered due to the threat of automatic financial reductions/…/
“A cloud of uncertainty will be hanging over the defence budget, potentially for the next 13 months,” said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments think-tank in Washington/.../
Analysts expect the army to face the most severe cuts, after its budget swelled dramatically because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The overall 2013 military base budget is already being worked on and Harrison said the impact will see the Pentagon planning for about $525 billion in funding for the fiscal year that begins Oct.1, 2012 and ends Sept.30, 2013.
If Democrats and Republicans remain at loggerheads and fail to reach a compromise, automatic cuts known as a sequester mechanism will come into force in January 2013, even though the budget for that fiscal year will have already been in effect for three months. The FY2013 budget would then drop automatically from $525 billion to $472 billion, according to Harrison’s estimates.
The Pentagon “has plans for all kind of contingencies” but “to date every indication is they’re not planning for a sequester level of cuts,” he said. “Any budget cut should be strategy-driven, you should adjust your strategy to the new budget environment, the new reality that we face.” The automatic cuts, which would bring the military budget to its 2007 levels excluding combat operations, pose a grave threat to military effectiveness and the new strategy as they apply evenly across the board, leaving commanders limited room to choose where to save money.