TOPICS
TOPICS
Defense chief announces weapons cuts
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday afternoon announced a slate of proposed cuts to military weapons programs that will surely ignite major fights on Capitol Hill this year.
Gates announced several major cuts: halting production of F-22 fighter jet, eliminating the VH-71 presidential helicopter program, killing the Air Force's CSAR-X Combat Search and Rescue vehicle, ending the Transformational Satellite Program, putting the Navy's DDG 1000 shipbuilding program on probation, cutting the missile defense program by $1.4 billion and canceling the vehicle component of the Army's Future Combat Systems program.
"This is a reform budget," Gates said during a press briefing.
The Defense secretary also announced that 13,000 new civil servants would be hired in fiscal 2010 to replace contractors who provide support services to the Pentagon.
COMMENTS
- To the "Chicken Little" folks. When and how did Iran demonstrate the capability to deliver a nuclear weapon to the USA? Probably in a container through a port via a third nation. How would a missile defense system prevent this type of delivery? How would a couple of hundred more F-22s or several new destroyers have prevented 911? We need more special ops and this new plan is moving in that direction. As previously stated by Ike was Right the chairs are merely being moved around as they should. Rick Posted April 9, 2009 7:42 AM
- Actually it is 50% of tax money used for the yearly budget. Hidden in the military costs are military missions of other agencies outside of DOD such as DOE, DHS and VA as well as the interest on the debt for the current and past wars. Social Security and Medicare trust funds where money is raised separately from taxes. That's why your pay stub has line items for those separate from the tax being withheld. I agree for this current year TARP is skewing things. Ike was Right Posted April 8, 2009 12:37 PM
- Defense spending is no where near 50% of the budget. Take a look at the cost of entitlement programs including Social Security, Medicare, etc. plus the bloated bailout and TARP expenditures amounting to trillions of dollars. Granted, not all new weapons programs should be fully funded in view of the current economic crisis, but missile defense, especially given recent events in North Korea and Iran, should definitely continue to be funded in full without the proposed cuts. Hmmm Posted April 8, 2009 11:23 AM
