CSBA in the News

Politics aside, however, a military pay freeze likely would not harm the Defense Department, said Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, who has analyzed various proposals to cut defense spending. “Given the fact that military and DoD civilian pay raises have exceeded raises in the private sec­tor each year for much of the past decade, and recruiting and retention are robust due to high unemployment in the private sector, a temporary freeze in non-combat compensation would not likely have an adverse effect on the military,” Harrison said in a November report

When it comes to Egypt, the investments we’ve made in international military education and training really pay off in situations like this

The lack of flexibility is an enormous problem, said Mark Gunzinger, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. “When you move money around like that, it is very difficult to do long-term strategic plans, or even implement existing plans when you’re not sure what the funding levels are going to be,” he said.

Gates plans to take some of those monies and shift them to other needs — but some lawmakers and analysts say the secretary might lose a good chunk as Congress grapples with paring the federal deficit. “I don’t expect any major surprises” next week when the next budget plan is made public, said Jim Thomas of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “I don’t think there will be more immediate program cuts,” Thomas added Sunday during “This Week in Defense News.”

But F/A-18 workers were spared. “The aircraft has been a good insurance policy for the Navy,” said Todd Harrison, a defense analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “The F/A-18 will be in demand for as long as there are problems with the F-35 program. And if you look how that program has gone over the last several years, there’s no telling how long that will be.”

Egypt has long been a valued customer of the U.S. defense industry. But at least in the near term, the dynamic isn’t likely to change any more than for other business in the nation, which has largely ground to a halt because of the ongoing unrest, said Eric Edelman, a distinguished fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “I would expect that everything would, for the moment, stay on course. There’s no reason [for it] not to,” said Edelman, a former Pentagon undersecretary for policy. He added that recent discussions between Egyptian military leaders and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen were probably to “reassure” the Egyptian military.