As Pentagon leaders prepare for two major reviews this year, some officials are beginning to wonder where Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s strategic choices and management review (SCMR) will end and where the Quadrennial Defense Review might begin — and whether the two efforts could become one/…/
The Pentagon long has battled with Congress over politically sensitive spending cuts. But this year, military officials say Congress’ refusal to retire ships and aircraft means the Navy and Air Force are spending roughly $5 billion more than they would if they were allowed to make the cuts. In some cases Congress restored funds to compensate for the changes, but the result overall was lost savings/…/
There is no question that America needs to invest in keeping its nuclear deterrent credible, said Paul Huessy, an expert on nuclear weapons at GeoStrategic Analysis. In his view, however, the missile industrial base is less of a concern than retaining the ability to develop an actual nuclear warhead, he said. Huessy and Barry Watts at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments say that programs like the EELV or refurbishment programs for existing missiles are probably sufficient to keep ICBM and SLBM design skills alive. Huessy said that there are many components on the U.S. Air Force Minuteman III, for example, that are being replaced—which requires many of the skills needed to design an entirely new weapon. “They have all sorts of ideas on how to build a Minuteman [replacement],” he said.
Jim Thomas, the director of studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, argues in a new essay — published in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs — that as the Defense Department shifts its attention to the Asia Pacific region, the Army can burnish its case for a greater role by focusing more on land-based missile systems and less on its ground expeditionary forces:
Traditionally, the core purpose of the U.S. Army has been to fight and win the United States’ wars. Since World War II, this has meant planning for overseas operations to defend friendly countries against invasion, seize and hold territory, and overthrow despotic regimes. But the protracted counterinsurgency campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, like the one in Vietnam a generation earlier, marked a departure from the army’s preferred way of war. Today, with U.S. forces out of Iraq and leaving Afghanistan, an intense debate is under way about what kind of army the United States needs.
Did you know that the average cost of pay and benefits per active-duty service member grew over the period 2001-2012 from $54,000 to $109,000? That’s an increase of 56 percent once inflation is considered.
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