| | |  Americas & Beyond | April 2009 
Gates Calls for Shift in Defense Spending Priorities
 Mary Louise Kelly - NPR News
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| | US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates unveiled a budget plan that included no funds for the F-22 fighter jet. (Getty Images) | |
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that he wants to "profoundly reform" the way the Pentagon does business, calling for more money for unmanned spy planes, helicopters and other items for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His new budget would eliminate a multibillion dollar satellite program and end production of the F-22 fighter jet.
Gates' announcement marks a shift in priorities - steering more resources toward the wars the U.S. military is fighting today as opposed to conventional wars the U.S. might fight in the future.
"This is a reform budget, reflecting lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan," Gates said.
Gates conceded that he will likely be criticized for focusing too much on current conflicts and not enough on future threats. But that's not the case, he said.
"It is important to remember that every defense dollar spent to overensure 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," he said. "That is a risk I will not take."
Gates wants more money for mental health care as well as for helicopters, which are urgently needed in Afghanistan. And he wants to maximize the production of unmanned spy planes, like the Predator and Reaper drones, which he says "will represent a 62 percent increase in capability over the current level and 127 percent from a year ago."
Gates also says he's committed to maintaining U.S. air superiority. "Therefore, I will recommend increasing the buy of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from the 14 aircraft bought in FY09, to 30 in FY10," he said.
But not all fighter jet programs will be so lucky: Gates announced he wants to end production of the F-22. He is also scrapping a multibillion dollar satellite program and cutting the budget for missile defense.
Over time, Gates wants to cut the number of aircraft carriers from 11 to 10, and he's scaling back the Army's modernization program.
None of these decisions will be popular with the big defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin or Boeing. Nor will they be popular with lawmakers whose districts house weapons production plants and all the jobs that support them.
Gates acknowledged that while Monday's announcement represents an end to months of internal Pentagon debate, it's only the opening salvo in the budget battle that will play out across Washington in the coming weeks.
"My hope is that, as we have tried to do here in this building, that the members of Congress will rise above parochial interests and consider what is in the best interests of the nation as a whole," he said.
Even before Gates' news conference finished, members of Congress were busy e-mailing reporters their reactions. Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, called the new budget a "good-faith effort." But Skelton noted pointedly that "the buck stops with Congress," which gets to "decide whether to support these proposals."
It does look as though Gates will have at least one committed and powerful ally in Sen. John McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He's calling the Pentagon plan "a major step in the right direction."
Pentagon Weapon Plan's Winners and Losers
Andrea Shalal-Esa - Reuters
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Washington - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced on Monday a proposed 2010 budget for the Pentagon that makes changes to a broad swath of big-ticket weapon programs. If adopted by the White House and Congress his recommendations would:
• Scrap a new presidential helicopter designed and built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and its European partner AgustaWestland, a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica SpA (SIFI.MI). Gates said the program had nearly doubled in cost to over $13 billion and was six years behind schedule.
• Restructure the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization program run by Boeing Co (BA.N) and Science Applications International Corp (SAI.N), a program valued at $160 billion, scrapping a ground vehicle program valued at $87 billion.
• Move work on three DDG-1000 destroyers to the General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) shipyard, while building more earlier-version DDG-51 destroyers at the Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N) shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
• Scrap plans for now for a new cruiser warship, which was initially planned to be based on the DDG-1000 design.
• Cancel plans to build a new long-range bomber by 2018, a $10-billion-plus program for which Lockheed and Boeing had teamed up to compete against Northrop.
• Cut $10 billion in annual funding for missile defense programs by $1.4 billion. The Pentagon would cancel work on a second airborne laser being developed by Boeing and not fund additional interceptor purchases. But it would add funding for more regional missile defense projects run by Lockheed and Raytheon Co (RTN.N).
• Buy four more F-22 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin for a total of 187, but far less than the 60 additional fighters requested by the Air Force, while accelerating funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, also built by Lockheed, to $11.2 billion in fiscal 2010.
• Buy 31 more F/A-18 fighter jets built by Boeing in fiscal 2010 to cover an expected Navy aviation gap until the Navy begins receiving larger numbers of F-35 fighters.
• Terminate a new multibillion-dollar Transformational Satellite program aimed at improving military communications, a program for which Lockheed and Boeing have already been doing research work. Instead the Pentagon would buy two more Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites built by Lockheed.
• Cancel a $15 billion competition for new Air Force search and rescue helicopters for which Lockheed, Boeing and Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) were competing. The Pentagon would review whether the requirement for the helicopter still existed, or if there should be a joint program for all the military services.
(Editing by Tim Dobbyn) |
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