Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday unveiled the framework for the comprehensive review that the Defense Department is launching to inform future decisions on national security spending.
“The new comprehensive review will ensure that future spending decisions are focused on strategy and risks and are not simply a math and accounting exercise,” Gates said at a Pentagon briefing. “The overarching goal will be to preserve a U.S. military capable of meeting crucial national security priorities even if fiscal pressure requires reductions in the force’s size.”
The review of capabilities and missions is expected to aid in achieving the president’s expectation of another $400 billion in budget cuts in the coming 12 years.
“The review is to provide the substance for making those conscientious decisions where the political leadership of the country says, in essence, we are prepared to accept this risk in return for reduced investment in defense.”
For the past two years, Gates said DoD leadership has been working on reforming how the Pentagon does business, responding to the fiscal situation facing the nation, and to ensure the services have the capabilities the nation needs to protect its interests in a “dangerous and unstable” world.
DoD overhauled its approach to military acquisition, curtailing or cancelling about 20 troubled weapons programs, he said at a Pentagon briefing. Then last year, a department wide-campaign to generate savings from excessive overhead, reallocated savings to the services for reinvestment and new expenses as well as deficit reduction.
“The overarching goal of these efforts was to carve out enough budget space to preserve and enhance key military capabilities in the face of declining rates of budget growth,” he said.
Most concerning to Gates is to reject the traditional approach of across the board cuts, which he characterized as “the simplest and most politically expedient approach both inside this building and outside of it.”
That kind of approach preserves overhead and maintains force structure on paper yet results in a “hollowing out of the force from a lack of proper training, maintenance and equipment,” he said. That happened in the 1970s and again in the 1990s.
The review will be guided by the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, the National Military Strategy, the Chairman’s Risk Assessment and the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) to ensure “appropriate focus on strategic policy choices first, and corresponding changes in the DoD budget second.”
The QDR is the basis of today force sizing, mission focus and capabilities, but Gates said there is not a strong analytical link between the QDR and the present forces.
“This review will establish that linkage so that we can see the impact of changing QDR strategy on force structure, missions and capability,” he said. “Only once competing strategy options are identified should the review begin to consider fiscal implications and options.”
To do this, the review is expected to develop specific program options that can be categorized as “four bins.”
First, finding additional efficiencies, continuing efforts launched last year to make changes that would reduce DoD costs with minimal impact on military capability.
“We must be even more aggressive in curtailing bureaucratic excess and overhead before considering fundamental changes in national strategy or force capabilities,” he said.
A second bin will involve examining “policies, programs, processes and mandates” that drive dramatic defense operating cost increases including delivering health care, compensation and retirement benefits.
A third bin will contain options to reduce or eliminate marginal missions and capabilities, those specialized and costly programs that are useful in only a limited range of circumstances. These are carried out today by DoD and are of value but not central to the core mission.
The most difficult bin strategically and intellectually, he said. That will be specific alternative modifications to the QDR strategy that translate into options for reductions in force structure or the capability needed to execute the strategy. This category will be informed by all the other activities in this framework.
“In the end, this process must be about identifying options for the president, and the Congress where the nation is willing to accept risk in exchange for reduced investment in DoD,” Gates said.
The Defense Comprehensive Review will be jointly led by the director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation Christine Fox, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen.