Mullen: Program Changes Made with 'Strategic Approach'
By JOHN T. BENNETT
Published: 27 May 2009 14:13
U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen rejects some lawmakers' criticism that the raft of program changes in the 2010 Pentagon spending plan were fashioned without ample strategic thinking.
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, pauses before he answers a question during a May 27 meeting with Defense News reporters and editors. (TOM BROWN / STAFF)
"I don't accept that" line of criticism, Mullen told Defense News reporters and editors May 27.
He said Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who announced April 7 that the 2010 plan would contain about 50 major program changes, made each one using "a strategic approach."
Since the April announcement, some lawmakers have sounded alarm bells about what they have called inadequate analysis, and for keeping Congress in the dark about his plans.
Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., House Armed Services Committee ranking member, said during a May 13 hearing that Congress mandated that the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) should come before annual Pentagon budgets are finalized to ensure major weapon decisions are supported by rigorous analysis.
The 50 major program changes, crafted largely by the secretary, are part of the Pentagon's 2010 budget request. The QDR, however, is months from completion.
Other Republicans on the House panel echoed his concerns, as have several Democrats like Pennsylvania Rep. Joseph Sestak, a retired three-star admiral who served as the Navy's strategy chief. Some Republican senators, like Georgia's Saxby Chambliss and Texas' John Cornyn, have raised the same concerns.
These lawmakers have said the upcoming 2010 QDR will amount to no more than a "budget drill" that must justify the list of weapon program decisions.
But Mullen, during the May 27 meeting, said defense officials, as planned for some time, are conducting the 2010 QDR and 2011 defense budget building processes "in parallel."
As part of that dual effort, the chairman said, officials are looking for ways to continue "balancing" the U.S. military force. Balance is the word Gates has used to describe his program terminations and alterations.
Mullen suggested the 2011 budget plan and QDR will feature more moves aimed at officials' ongoing desire to "achieve the proper balance" between placing greater emphasis on fielding tools for irregular and conventional fights.
The 2010 budget, especially the major program decisions, Gates has said, is intended as a first step at shifting more focus and resources toward irregular wars like the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
"We have moved that pendulum," Mullen said, "but we don't want to go too far."
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