The Post War Shrink

Feb 1, 2012 by James

Updates

The Army’s legendary Humvee is about to be replaced with the JLTV. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno on Jan. 25 listed the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle as one of his top three priorities and said the service can’t keep “hanging things on the Humvee.” The JLTV is a multi-mission capable vehicle that is mine resistant, command and control capable, utility truck and of course a weapons platform. At $240,000 a piece they fall in line with the scrapped Humvee upgrade that didn’t include all of the goodies that come with the futuristic looking JLTV.

The contract is up for grabs and four companies are trying to snag the contract. Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Oshkosh Defense and General Tactical Vehicles, a joint team of General Dynamics Land Systems and Humvee maker AM General are looking to secure the JLTV build.

The Army wants at least 20,000 JLTVs, with the potential for a larger buy for the program, with an estimated worth of $20 billion. Army officials plan to replace a third of their 150,000-vehicle Humvee fleet with the JLTV. The Marine Corps plans to buy 5,500.

Wasn’t this post about budget cuts? Full story here: Army Times

As billions in budget cuts start to sink in the United States military is having to trim the fat and for thousands of troops that means they’re out of a job. In an effort to downsize after the war in Iraq the Army is cutting around 80,000 troops and the Marine Corps is losing some 20,000 Marines. The Secretary of Defense has the tough job of trying to keep Congressmen from shooting themselves as their districts could potentially lose much needed jobs and government cash. The SecDef is assuring everyone that these cuts won’t result in a weakened military but will instead result in one that is smaller and leaner, but agile, flexible, ready and technologically advanced.”

The Defense Department budget will be reduced about 22% from its 2010 peak and according to the Pentagon this is normal. After the wars in Vietnam and the Cold War budgets shrank by about 20-25%.

The Departments investment choices for FY 2013-2017 were derived from this guidance and conform to the 2011 Budget Control Act reduce Defense Department future expenditures by approximately $487 billion over the next decade or $259 billion over the next five years. Reflecting these reductions, the Department will request funding of $525 billion for FY 2013, rising to $567 billion by FY 2017.

Special Forces will receive additional funding as well as taking the lead role in future counter-terrorism operations that do not necessarily require a response by conventional forces.

The sharp budget cuts are gearing the Pentagon for the type of military we should have had in Iraq and Afghanistan. The new $613 billion budget will reshape the military into a force more focused on technology, special operations forces, drones, submarines, missiles and new bombers. Also one of the few areas receiving more money is the cyber warfare department. This means that the military gets to keep its 11 aircraft carriers and the 10 air wings that go with them to keep up power projection in the Pacific. Troops will also be receiving training to polish off skills that haven’t been used in over a decade, due to a focus on counter-terrorism, so that they can handle a wide array of threats. The nuclear arsenal will also remain intact as will their delivery vehicles.

Programs getting the green light include,

The Army’s Gray Eagle Drone
Sea-based unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems
such as Fire Scout – important ISR assets where ground basing is not available
Unspecified unmanned vehicles (likely not named because they’re still in development)
A floating sea base program that has been in the works for 20 years
Anything Special Forces related

Additionally money will be pumped into the most expensive defense project ever; the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Only the purchase of JSFs will be slowed even as weapons testing has discovered many new flaws that will be rather costly to fix. The Navy will be getting some cash to develop a “conventional prompt strike option” for the submarine fleet so that they can attack targets without starting nuclear war by using ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) to deliver conventional payloads. New air to air missiles are getting some funding which is more than likely to counter China’s growing stealth fighter fleet.

Whats being axed,

27 Air Force C-5A Cargo Planes
65 Air Force C-130 Cargo Planes
38 Air Force C-27 Cargo Planes
An Air Force Global Hawk Drone variant (being replaced)
Army missile spotting blimps – Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System
The Humvees aren’t being upgraded either. The replacement is on the horizon.
The Navy is losing 7 cruisers, 2 amphibious ships and it is delaying the purchase of or buying less of at least 11 ships and 1 submarine.

This is sure to get those on the Hill riled up in the coming week as networks offer face time to politicians who want to talk about how this will gravely “endanger” America and how Obama has failed. The Presidential candidates have already begun the attack although that is certainly more politically motivated than it is a critique of the new Defense Department strategy. The problem facing those criticizing the move is explaining why we should continue to pour the same amount of money into a Department that is fighting one war instead of two and that’s before getting to the mess of the economy. As the Defense Department pointed out in their budget brief a draw down has occurred after every war not just the ones Mr. Obama has presided over.

This needs to happen and unlike the quick cuts of previous administrations this one has been thought out to cover every area without losing dominance. The biggest perk to this budget is that it doesn’t include the loss of an aircraft carrier and several Marine air wings which will allow us to meet our force projection standards across the world. Another area of area of concern that isn’t being slashed is the submarine fleet which is needed to ensure China’s rapidly expanding fleet doesn’t cause problems. I have been advocating for the rapid expansion of Special Operations and operators for some time now and finally the Snake Eaters are going to see a rapid increase in missions and funding. Instead of sending a battalion of Marines to contain a hot spot, men in camouflaged faces and suppressed weapons will show up. Special Forces have already been conducting more missions than ever before, the success rate has been phenomenal and this administration has recognized the success.