US cuts conventional forces but doubles to 50 the number of Predators used in Pakistan

[MikeWB]

US cuts conventional forces but doubles to 50 the number of Predators used in Pakistan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ap ... udget-cuts

US defence secretary announces large cuts to help curb spending

Cuts include the costly F-22 fighter plane, a new communications satellite and ship-building programmes

Ewen MacAskill in Washington

 Monday 6 April 2009 22.37 BST

US secretary of defence Robert Gates. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

The Pentagon today announced the scrapping of a host of prestigious, big-budget projects as it sought to curb military spending that doubled during the Bush years.

Victims of the Obama administration's new approach included the costly F-22 fighter plane, a new communications satellite, ship-building programmes, missile development and a $13bn (£8.8bn) replacement helicopter fleet for the president.

The cuts represent a shift in the balance of Pentagon spending away from ballistic and conventional warfare towards the kind of irregular conflicts the US is engaged in in Afghanistan and Iraq. Reflecting this change, there is to be increased spending on intelligence and surveillance, on recruiting thousands more special forces troops and on hundreds of new helicopters.

About $2bn extra is to go towards doubling to 50 the number of Predators, the unmanned drones controversially used in Pakistan against suspect al-Qaida and Taliban targets, and also in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Robert Gates, the defence secretary, told a press conference that the proposals represented a shift of the Pentagon in a different strategic direction, away from the kind of expensive, high-tech projects beloved of some military planners.

"It is important to remember that every defence dollar spent to over-ensure against a remote or diminishing risk or in effect to run up the score in a capability where the United States is already dominant is a dollar not available to take care of our people, reset the force, win the wars we are in and improve capabilities in areas where we are underinvested and potentially vulnerable," Gates said.

He estimated that about 10% of the new budget will for the first time be dedicated to counter-insurgency.

The defence secretary's budget plans will face determined resistance as members of Congress try to restore projects being built in their states and to protect jobs. Gates, anticipating the fight his budget will face in Congress, appealed to members of the Senate and the House not to be parochial and instead put the interests of the nation first.

Gates refused to offer a global figure for his budget until it went to Congress.

The most controversial cutback is the F-22 fighter jet, which costs $140m each. Production is to be halted at 187. A new air force transport plane is also to be ended, and some of the more exorbitant programmes, such as the Future Combat Systems, which costs $160bn, are to be scaled back.

One of the biggest losers will be the navy, with many of its ship-building programmes to be delayed or cancelled. Gates said the US already has a dominance on the sea.

Although purchase of the F-22 is to be capped, the Pentagon is to push ahead with production of the F-35 fighter jet.

More is to be spent too on cyberspace, with the number of cyber experts being trained each year to rise from 80 to 250.

Gates said that the money had already been laid aside in previous budgets for the European Missile Defence System, which Russia opposes and may yet be scrapped.