WASHINGTON, Nov 28: As the US military grappled with budget cuts over the past year, one thing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made clear was the Pentagon must avoid reductions in training and maintenance that would lower the force’s readiness to fight.
But a report released by a Washington think tank yesterday challenged that assumption, concluding that a short-term cut in readiness funding could free up cash to develop weapons and equipment needed to be ready in the future.
Several teams of defense experts brought together by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments to re-envision US defense strategy in a time of tight budgets concluded that a short-term reduction in readiness spending could be done with little risk.
“These teams reasoned that, ‘well, we’re coming out of a decade of war and frankly our force is very ready,” said CSBA fellow Mark Gunzinger, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and retired Air Force colonel who helped lead the exercise.
Rather than spending to maintain a high state of readiness, the teams reasoned they could reduce readiness spending and invest that money in “modernization programs which will help us be a better prepared force in the future,” Gunzinger said.
The finding was one of several made when the CSBA assembled seven teams of defense experts this summer to look at how the Pentagon should address the likelihood of additional budget cuts in the coming years.
The report released on Tuesday is one of a series produced by think tanks following the U.S. Elections as Congress returns to Washington looking for ways to avert massive across-the-board spending cuts due to hit defense and other federal programs in early January.
(AGENCIES)
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