Gates Proposes Big Shift in Pentagon Spending
The military currently has 183 of the $350 million-a-piece F-22s on order, and four more will be added to the 2009 emergency war-funding budget. But the advanced fighter has not been used in either Iraq or Afghanistan, and Gates believes that, given the more pressing spending priorities, the military has as many F-22s as it needs. Instead, Gates will commit to increasing the supply of the next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as well as weapons systems designed to enhance U.S. capability in current conflicts, from unmanned drones and defenses against medium-range missiles to armored vehicles and even body armor.
"Some will say I am too focused on the wars we are in and not enough on future threats," Gates told reporters. "But it is important to remember that every defense dollar spent to overinsure against a remote or diminishing risk — or, in effect, to 'run up the score' in a capability where the United States is already dominant — is a dollar not available to take care of our people, reset the force, win the wars we are in and improve capabilities in areas where we are underinvested and potentially vulnerable."
Besides the F-22, other casualties will be a new search-and-rescue helicopter and the Army's Future Combat Systems program — a $160 billion fleet of high-tech vehicles and aircraft that is ideal for waging war against a powerfully armed nation-state but is of far less use for the kinds of counterinsurgency wars currently being waged. And the Navy's shipbuilding program, which has been shoddily run for years, will see some cuts. Gates also plans to cut spending on missile defense by $1.4 billion next year, while new satellite communications programs are trimmed. And the Marines' plan to spend more than $13 billion on a new fleet of helicopters to transport the President, which Obama himself had deemed unnecessary, was cut from Gates' budget. (See the top 10 outrageous earmarks of 2008.)
Gates has been saying for months that the time has come for a "strategic reshaping" of the way the U.S. military is spending $600 billion a year — a tab that doesn't even include the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now he's going public with the 2010 budget proposal he drafted in secret before formally sending it to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget. It's a ploy designed to build momentum for Gates' plan before it can be sabotaged by defense contractors and lawmakers (often from districts that benefit from building particular big-ticket items), with behind-the-scenes help from the military.
"If even a few of the Gates cuts are serious, a pork-crazed Congress will go nuts," says Winslow Wheeler, who spent 30 years working on defense issues for members of both parties on Capitol Hill. "The big challenge will then become making any serious decisions stick."
Gates' aides explain that his budget is being presented as a single holistic proposal — rather than being leaked in dribs and drabs, which could build resistance to specific changes — and therefore it stands a better chance of winning approval from Congress. But though Gates urged lawmakers to rise above "parochial" concerns in responding to the budget, resistance will be fierce on the Hill, where some view any retooling of the military budget as a recipe for a weaker America and others simply want to keep defense-contractor jobs in their districts — a combination that could yet trump a highly-regarded Defense Secretary and President. Still, Gates has the backing of President Obama as well as that of Senator John McCain, who on Monday released a statement signaling his "strong support" of the proposed cuts. Convincing the rest of Capitol Hill to follow suit, however, will be a major battle.
