Weapons Cuts Raise Warning Flags as Panetta Warns of Rising Powers
Editor’s note: Two years ago this August I wrote a piece called “The End of Acquisition,” positing that then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates may well have gone too far in cutting key major programs and reducing research funding. The key quote went thusly:
“With science and technology spending going flat and the national fatigue for wars and defense spending, we could very well create a force with little or no power projection capability or one that is shaped due to budget considerations rather than what the last superpower ought to be thinking about - deterrence,” said one senior analyst who works with the Pentagon and the intelligence community.
Well, that time may be upon us. This morning one of the canniest defense analysts in town, Loren Thompson, noted that “about half” of major weapons programs “have been killed or substantially scaled back.” Thompson, who also works as a defense consultant, said he fears that, “at the rate weapons plans are being trimmed, the entire next generation of warfighting systems may soon be gone.”
This all comes as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Mike Mullen, warned the country anew of the threat from rising powers such as China. America must ensure, Mullen said yesterday, that such rising states know America stands ready to defend and assert its interests around the globe. For the latest item of note in this regard, see AOL D’s own Carlo Munoz’s piece about the Navy slimming down to nine carrier groups for the foreseeable future.
Here is Loren’s piece in full. [He is, of course, a member of the AOL Defense Board of Contributors.] This item first appeared on the Lexington Institute’s blog.
[…]
People may still be the most important ingredient in U.S. military power, but many of those people will be put at unnecessary risk in future conflicts if the Pentagon doesn’t stop hemorrhaging the investment programs needed to keep pace with the military technology of potential adversaries.