Defense Cuts Coming, Gates Testifies

[unhappycamper]

Defense Cuts Coming, Gates Testifies
January 28, 2009
The Virginian-Pilot

WASHINGTON -- Defense spending, particularly for expensive new weapons such as the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (uhc: $600 million) and the F-35 fighter (uhc: $239 million), is going down and the Obama administration is preparing to make hard choices to end programs that exceed their budgets, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.

"The spigot of defense funding opened by 9/11 is closing," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

The demands of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with the nation's economic crisis, require military planners to separate "those things that are desirable from those things that are truly needed" in the way of new weapons, Gates added.

He suggested that the new administration will avoid across-the-board spending reductions, "which inefficiently extend all programs," and will try to save money by eliminating unneeded programs.

The secretary did not signal which programs he has in mind, but said the cuts will begin in the administration's 2010 defense budget proposal. That plan is expected to be released this spring.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/defense-cuts-coming-gates-testifies.html?col=1186032310810



uhc comment: Most, if not all military programs are over budget. Examples:

LAPDs were supposed to cost $800 million - they cost $1.8 billion
F-22s cost $355 million a pop, but I keep seeing stuff saying they cost $150 million
My personal favorite is an $89,000 155mm artillery round

For more info, search this forum or google: Deepwater, Future Combat Systems

[exboyfil]

1. As we think about defense reductions we also need to think

about our commitments. I see no reason why we should be spending anymore than the OECD average on defense (2-3% of GDP). We currently spend at least 4-5% of GDP. Some examples of our allies:
US - 4.1% (probably understated)
UK - 2.4%
Germany - 1.5%
France - 2.6%
Australia - 2.4%
Canada - 1.1%
Mexico - 0.5%
S. Korea - 2.7%
Japan - 0.8%
Italy - 1.8%
Spain - 1.2%
Poland - 1.7%
Ukraine - 1.4%
Taiwan - 2.2%

As a counterweight -

China - 4.3%
Russia - 3.9%
N. Korea - ????

Bring our troops home. Make our allies pay more to defend themselves. I see no reason for bases in Korea, Japan, Guam, and Germany.

Any ideas on how to get our halo effect allies (in particular Canada) to pony up more for their own defense?

Cut our aircraft carrier battle groups in half.