Defense chief announces weapons cuts
Gates says the Pentagon plans to bring on 13,000 civil servants in fiscal 2010 to replace support service contractors.
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.