CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk, January 27,2012
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/asia-pacific-region-spared-knife-as-panetta-slashes-us-forces/story-e6frg6so-1226255721900
- Brad Norington From: The Australian January 28, 2012 12:00AM
THE US military’s presence in the Asia-Pacific will be enhanced despite large-scale budget cuts unveiled by the Pentagon that seek to reap savings from reducing troop numbers and closing bases.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta released the details of a Pentagon budget yesterday that proposes reducing the army by 80,000 and the marines by 20,000 within five years.
Big savings would be achieved by delaying orders for new submarines and jet fighters, and by retiring some ships earlier than planned.
Mr Panetta outlined proposals for removing two army heavy brigades stationed in Europe and closing several bases inside the US.
But the Pentagon’s shrinking of forces would not come at a cost to the Asia-Pacific, where the US intends to base up to 2500 troops in Darwin and explore an opportunity for expanding its deployment of forces in The Philippines as a counter to China’s growing military strength in the region.
The budget released yesterday by Mr Panetta puts the flesh on the bones of a military strategy announced early this month by President Barack Obama in the company of the Defence Secretary and the top brass at the Pentagon.
The idea behind the strategy is that the US military should keep sufficient troop numbers to win a significant war and enough to deter a potential combatant in another conflict.
As the Obama administration plans for the withdrawal of most troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 following a total exit from Iraq, the revised strategy is a shift from the past where the Pentagon has operated on the basis of fighting – and winning – two wars at once.
The Pentagon cuts are the direct consequence of the agreement reached in congress last August to reduce the US federal budget deficit after months of deadlock.
It was agreed defence should be part of government austerity, with the requirement for a $US487 billion ($458bn) reduction in outlays over the next decade.
If no agreement is reached by congress on how to cut overall government spending by a further $US1.2 trillion, the Pentagon could be forced to find further savings of $US600bn over the decade.
The budget cuts are still subject to approval by congress, with vocal opposition to any reduction of Pentagon resources from Republicans such as senator John McCain and Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House of Representatives armed services committee.
Mr Panetta said yesterday the proposed Pentagon budget would be a test of whether reducing the federal budget deficit was about “talk or action”. The budget sought to keep “the most flexible, versatile and technologically advanced platforms needed for the future”.
As forecast in The Australian yesterday, the Pentagon’s proposed flexibility includes expanding its network of unmanned drone aircraft from 61 around-the-clock combat patrols to 65, and having the capacity for a temporary expansion to 85.
Instead of fighting long wars, more emphasis will be placed on the deployment of special operations outfits such as the navy SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden last year, and this week rescued an American woman and a Danish man, both aid workers, held hostage in Somalia.
The Pentagon budget proposes spending $US525bn in 2013, down from $US531bn approved for this year.
The bulk of cuts will apply in subsequent years as combat operations are reduced, military hardware is mothballed, bases are closed and troop numbers are depleted through attrition.
US defence spending has risen since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when it was $US297bn. When Mr Obama took office in 2009 the defence budget was $US513bn.
“To ensure an agile and ready force, we made a conscious choice not to maintain more force structure than we could afford to properly train and equip,” Mr Panetta said yesterday.
