Everyone is jumping up and down proudly proclaiming that cancellation of the F-35 is just not in the cards no matter how I think it would be in the best interests of the Marine Corps.
The truth is much starker...gloomier...and will essentially put us in a no win situation because leadership did not get in front of the wave and instead chose to ride this horse into the ground.
Exhibit number one via The Financial Times. An interview with Chuck Hagel (12/19/2012).
The defence department has gotten everything it’s wanted the last 10 years and more. We’ve taken priorities, we’ve taken dollars, we’ve taken programmes, we’ve taken policies out of the State Department, out of a number of other departments and put them over in defence.And this...
Now, I understand the nation is at war, two wars. That’s going to be the result. But, you have, and I think most Americans who read, who pay attention to anything, know about the inspector general’s reports. The latest one talking about $35bn in waste, fraud and abuse, coming directly out of corruption. $35 bn, and that’s just one report in one country.
The abuse and the waste and the fraud is astounding. It always is in war, by the way. I was in Vietnam in 1968. Even as a private, eventually being a sergeant, out on combat every day, even I saw a tremendous amount of that, so I think the Pentagon needs to be pared down. I think we need the Pentagon to look at their own priorities.
Well, no American wants to in any way hurt our capabilities to national defence, but that doesn’t mean an unlimited amount of money, and a blank cheque for anything they want at any time, for any purpose. Not at all. Not at all, and so the realities are that the mess we’re in this country, with our debt and our deficits, and our infrastructure and jobless and all the rest, is going to require everybody to take a look, even the defence department, and make a pretty hard re-evaluation and review.And finally this...
There is a natural self correction under way right now in the world. We do that in democracies, we do that with ourselves as individuals, and we can’t control that, and that’s a terribly difficult proposition for Americans to face, because almost every American alive today has lived over the last 65 years in a world where America has dominated, unrivalled in any way.That my friends is your Secretary of Defense talking.
We call the shots, no matter who, no matter what. It isn’t that way any more and it isn’t going to be that way. Now, that doesn’t mean we have to be a weaker power, or we’re not the senior power of the world. Not at all, but there’s a new reality of accommodation now, that’s going to have to be factored in.
China, India, Brazil, Turkey, South Korea, Europe’s issues, and it’s very difficult for America to come to grips with this. 9/11 knocked us off balance. We’re still not back to where we were.
Winston Churchill used the term once, the jarring gong of reality. This was America’s jarring gong of reality, like few we’ve ever had. We will get back. We will restructure, we will reorient. We will find a new centre of gravity in every way. Our people are too good, our system is too good. It’s too strong. Our fabric is too strong and we have the system, and we have the resources. We have the ability to do this. It’s painful. It’s probably going to be more painful as we go along. It’s going to be unfair, but we will reorient, restructure and we’ll have a better, stronger country.
Does he sound like a man that is going to fight tooth and nail to make sure that the US DoD is the most powerful in the world? Does he sound like the type of guy that is going to fund a defense system that has been historically overcost and late?
He doesn't to me. Quite honestly he sounds like the type of guy thats ready to take a meat cleaver to the Pentagon and won't stop till he hits bone.
I said before and I'll say again. Sequester is only giving the Obama Administration and the Secretary of Defense room to do what they wanted to do all along. Most of the cuts are in the DoD and thats just fine. Public pronouncements of how the cuts are going to be painful will of course be made but I'm betting its just for show. This is all part of the plan. Don't believe me?
Exhibit number two. Defense News (9/23/2012).
The Simpson-Bowles plan proposed slashing Pentagon spending by just more than $100 billion.The Commandant and SOCOM both rushed to safeguard funding for the V-22. The original Simpson-Bowles planned at stopping production of the V-22 at 280 aircraft. They've skirted that by sacrificing the Marine Personnel Carrier on the aviation altar. You can probably add the Amphibious Combat Vehicle to the fire.
As for specifics, it advocated a military pay freeze and sizable annual cuts to military acquisition coffers by making major changes or killing programs such as the
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft. The commission’s report also proposed reducing the U.S. military footprint in Europe and Asia.
“It remains on the table ... as simply a framework for being able to accomplish the kind of debt reduction that we need to maintain fiscal security,” said Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., a member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC). “I don’t think both parties have paid close enough attention to it.”
Members of both political parties agree — but only that the other party did too little to enact its recommendations after Simpson and Bowles delivered their report to the president in late 2010. Democrats accuse Republicans of rejecting its revenue suggestions; Republicans often accuse President Barack Obama of, as several have described it, putting the report on a shelf to collect dust.
Exhibit number three. Washington Post Wonk Blog (12/04/2012).
Congress has already passed 70 percent of the discretionary cuts. Under the Budget Control Act, discretionary spending will be $1.5 trillion lower from 2013 to 2022 than was projected in the Congressional Budget Office’s 2010 baseliner. That means that 70 percent of S-B’s cuts to discretionary spending are done.The cuts that we're seeing now are all in addition to cuts that the Pentagon has already done. This is actually above and beyond what is necessary to meet even the tougher requirements of the Simpson-Bowles plan. These were cuts that Panetta pushed to ease future pain. The JCS went along and now they're about to get bum rushed.
Simpson-Bowles cuts security spending by $1.4 trillion, not including drawing down the wars. That’s far deeper than what’s in the law now, far deeper than anything the White House or the Republicans have proposed, and deeper, I believe, than the sequester cuts that so many think would devastate the military.
The actual document is below but in it calls for reducing Air Force, Navy buys of the F-35 and replace it with F-16s and F/A-18s (in doubt). Kills the EFV (done). Cuts procurement of the V-22 (still in play by way of trickery). Reduce procurement by 15% (in process). Cancel the JLTV, the Ground Combat Vehicle and the Joint Tactical Radio (in process). Reduce military personnel stationed overseas (in process). Freeze military pay (in process). Modernize Tricare/DoD healthcare (in process). Kill the Marine Corps version of the F-35 (in doubt).
My point should be clear but if it isn't I'll say it plainly.
The "shocking" state of the DoD if sequester continues news conference by the JCS and SECDEF was nothing but politics. Sequester or better said, Simpson-Bowles is already in play and its being carried out. The only issues that remain to be accomplished are the F-35, officially killing the GCV and JLTV, making retirees swallow hard and accept Tricare fees (but they've been going up for a couple of years now anyway) and the military pay freeze.
Its damn near a fait accompli....
