Defense chief maps military's needs for transformation

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday mapped for lawmakers how much money the military believes it needs in fiscal 2005 to continue its efforts to transform U.S. forces in the face of 21st century threats.

"One thing we have learned in the global war on terror is that in the 21st century, what is critical to success in military conflict is not necessarily mass as much as it is capability," Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee He asked the panel to support current military transformation initiatives by approving the Pentagon budget plan unveiled on Monday.

"The 2005 budget before you is ... a request for the second installment of funding for the priorities set out in the president's 2004 request," Rumsfeld said.

He said the fiscal 2005 proposal includes $29 million to meet transformational goals identified in a 2001 defense review, such as plans to "harness our advantages in information technology to link" armed forces to fight jointly. The review also highlighted the need to improve the military's space-based surveillance technologies, such as satellites, protect military networks from attack and disable the enemy's information networks, among other goals.

To continue communication and intelligence projects, Rumsfeld said the budget requests $408 million for Defense's space-based radar system to monitor targets behind enemy lines "in any kind of weather." The request also includes: $775 million for a satellite system to decrease from minutes to seconds the time it takes to transmit images and information among the armed forces; $600 million to develop wireless Internet capability to transmit information among joint war-fighters; and $700 million to consolidate the military's various unmanned aerial vehicles.

Rumsfeld also testified that the military is employing current congressional authority to move from a threat-based to a capabilities-based approach to defense planning.

He said the department is investing in new information technologies, precision weapons, unmanned air and sea vehicles, and other less manpower-intensive technologies.