Impending Military Spending Freeze

[Richard]

Knowing how efficient and thrifty the DOD is, I'm sure it will be quite difficult to find any areas of unnecessary or wasteful spending that could be readily identified and trimmed from their budget.

Richard

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Richard

Knowing how efficient and thrifty the DOD is, I'm sure it will be quite difficult to find any areas of unnecessary or wasteful spending that could be readily identified and trimmed from their budget.

Richard

They could start with that slush fund Obama set up and hasn't spent and leave the Military alone.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Richard

Knowing how efficient and thrifty the DOD is, I'm sure it will be quite difficult to find any areas of unnecessary or wasteful spending that could be readily identified and trimmed from their budget.

Richard

Cute, since the only department I have seen volunteer to cut their budget is DoD.

Why doesn't everyone else cowboy up and take a 10-20% cut out of their budget?

TR

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Cute, since the only department I have seen volunteer to cut their budget is DoD.

Why doesn't everyone else cowboy up and take a 10-20% cut out of their budget?

TR

TR,

That will be the day!......... The 2nd coming of Jesus will happen "before" they would ever consider what you just purposed......... The D's and R's wouldn't even consider it.............

Big Teddy

[Buffalobob]

Well, if you will remember Gates tried to reduce a unneeded military unit in Virginian and all the Virginia politicians of both parties turned out as we predicted to object to it. Budget cuts are only good when it is some one else's donkey in the ditch.

if anyone doesn't remember the thread I can go searching around for it.

I guess we will also be getting lots of jet engines that are not needed because it is patriotic to have lots of jet engines that don't have an aircraft to go into.

[SF_BHT]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Cute, since the only department I have seen volunteer to cut their budget is DoD.

Why doesn't everyone else cowboy up and take a 10-20% cut out of their budget?

TR

Will never happen voluntarily.........

DOJ was cut 18% across the board, we are going to be doing cases on bikes next. Guess Homeland Security needed to pay for some more toys that do not work.

[Snaquebite]

This was released today:

DOD Announces $150 Billion Reinvestment from Efficiencies Savings

Specifically, the Department of the Navy is proposing to use efficiencies savings to:

Accelerate development of a new generation of electronic jammers to improve the Navy’s ability to fight and survive in an anti-access environment;
Increase the repair and refurbishment of Marine equipment used in Iraq and Afghanistan;
Develop a new generation of sea-borne unmanned strike and surveillance aircraft;
Buy more of the latest model F-18s and extend the service life of 150 of these aircraft as a hedge against more delays in the deployment of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF); and
Purchase additional ships – including a destroyer, a littoral combat ship, an ocean surveillance vessel and fleet oilers.

The Department of the Navy proposed efficiencies savings of more than $35 billion over five years to include:

Reducing manpower ashore and reassigning 6,000 personnel to operational missions at sea;
Using multi-year procurement to save more than $1.3 billion on the purchase of new airborne surveillance, jamming, and fighter aircraft;
Disestablishing several staffs (but not the associated platforms) to include submarine-, patrol aircraft-, and destroyer-squadrons plus one carrier strike group staff; and
Disestablishing the headquarters of Second Fleet at Norfolk, Va., and transferring responsibility for its mission to the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command.

For the Department of the Air Force, this efficiencies process made it possible to:

Buy more of the most advanced Reaper UAVs and move essential ISR programs from the temporary war budget to the permanent base budget. Going forward, advanced unmanned strike and reconnaissance capabilities must become an integrated part of the service’s regular institutional force structure;
Increase procurement of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle to assure access to space for both military and other government agencies while sustaining our industrial base;
Modernize the radars of F-15s to keep this key fighter viable well into the future;
Buy more simulators for JSF air crew training; and
Develop a new long range, nuclear-capable penetrating bomber, which will be designed using proven technologies, an approach that should make it possible to deliver this capability on schedule and in quantity.

The Air Force proposed efficiencies measures that will total some $34 billion over five years and include:

Consolidating two air operations centers in the United States and two in Europe;
Consolidating three numbered Air Force staffs;
Saving $500 million by reducing fuel and energy consumption within the Air Mobility Command;
Improving depot and supply chain business processes to sustain weapons systems, thus improving readiness at lower cost; and
Reducing the cost of communications infrastructure by 25 percent.

The Department of the Army would use its savings to:

Provide improved suicide prevention and substance abuse counseling for soldiers;
Modernize its battle fleet of Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, and Stryker wheeled vehicles;
Accelerate fielding to the soldier level of the Army’s new tactical communications network.
Accelerate procurement of the service’s most advanced Grey Eagle UAVs; and
Buy more MC-12 reconnaissance aircraft to support ground forces, and begin development of a new vertical unmanned air system to support the Army in the future.

The Army proposed $29 billion in savings over five years to include:

Terminating the SLAMRAAM surface to air missile, and the Non-Line of Sight Launch System, the next-generation missile launcher originally conceived as part of the Future Combat System;
Reducing manning by more than 1,000 positions by eliminating unneeded task forces and consolidating six installation management commands into four;
Saving $1.4 billion in military construction costs by sustaining existing facilities; and
Consolidating the service’s email infrastructure and data centers, which should save $500 million over five years.

http://www.defense.gov/releases/rele...eleaseid=14178

That totals $98 Billion Army/Navy/Air Force

[Richard]

It's like the old Rocky and Bullwinkle show:

"Hey, Rocky...watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat...."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRW7p...eature=related

But I wouldn't discount Gates' political acumen in all this:

The plan also identifies a separate $100 billion in savings, including the cancellation of a $14 billion amphibious Marine vehicle. But here's the catch: The Marines, like the other military services, will be able to plow a lot of the savings into other programs; they'll upgrade their current amphibious vehicle.

"My sense is that he's actually pulled off one of the great Houdini acts of our time," said Kori Schake, who served on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush. "What Gates has actually done is move $100 billion from his existing budget to his existing budget."

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/06/132712...on-from-budget

And so it goes...

Richard