Undersecretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy on Feb. 2 sought to shoot down claims that a major Pentagon strategy review and its 2011 spending plan place too little emphasis on "high-end" threats and systems.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been working to force the Defense Department to shift more focus and annual spending toward, as he puts it, "the wars we are in today." That has meant ending production of weapons like F-22 fighters, while buying more helicopters and data-gathering unmanned planes.
Some lawmakers and defense observers have questioned whether Gates is placing too much emphasis on "irregular warfare." During a Feb. 2 appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, Flournoy shot back against such concerns.
She acknowledged the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and the 2011 defense budget continue Gates' efforts to focus more money on programs better suited for the kinds of irregular fights U.S. forces have faced in Afghanistan and Iraq. But Flournoy also offered a counterpoint, describing the administration's force structure plan as "a very balanced approach."
The QDR calls for, and the budget plan seeks, "targeted investments" in several programs that will allow U.S. forces to penetrate what DoD calls "anti-access environments," she said. In such scenarios, enemies employ anti-ship weapons, air defense systems, fighter jets and other advanced "high-end" assets to keep American forces from entering a specific location.
Specifically, she pointed to the administration's desire for $4 billion for long-range strike programs, including "technological development funds" to help keep the U.S. bomber industrial base in place "while we flesh out" what kinds of platforms the military will need for "long-range, persistent strike."
Flournoy also cited greater Navy and Air Force collaboration on anti-access programs, as well as investments in systems for undersea warfare, space and cyber.
Many of the platforms - she cited the additional helicopters and UAVs - will be a part of the U.S. military's force structure for years to come. The extra unmanned aircraft, for instance, should allow Pentagon brass to give "more eyes in the sky" to U.S. regional commands that have seen most of their ISR assets sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meantime, Flournoy also addressed ever-rising personnel costs and the pressures those are putting on annual defense budgets.
Military pay and benefits per active-duty member, including retired pay and healthcare, rose 45 percent from $55,000 in 1998 to $80,000 in 2009, according to a 2009 Congressional Research Service report to Congress. That includes a requirement that the Pentagon pay health costs for 810,000 retirees over age 65, which alone accounts for $5,484 per active-duty member.
"Unless we find ways to control these costs, we will cloud out" other parts of the defense budget, such as operations and maintenance accounts and procurement coffers, Flournoy said.
Her comments expand on alarms raised the previous day by Gates.
"The military health care program in 2001 was $19 billion. In 2010, it's $50.7 billion. It's only going to go up. And it is absorbing an increasing percentage of our budget," Gates told reporters during a Pentagon briefing. "We absolutely want to take care of our men and women in uniform and our retirees, but at some point, there has to be some reasonable tradeoff between reasonable cost increases or premium increases or co-pays or something and the cost of the program."
And although the QDR process is complete, the Pentagon is far from being done with major studies:
■ Defense officials are continuing an assessment that will culminate with a new anti-access concept of operations.
■ Flournoy said the department has just kicked off "a global rethink" of the military's posture around the globe that will look at forward-stationed forces, rotational units, bases and training sets. Its findings, she said, will inform budget and program decisions in the Pentagon's fiscal 2012 spending blueprint.
■ She has directed the Pentagon's QDR office, overseen by Kathleen Hicks, deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans and forces, to examine whether changes are needed to the legislation that orders the quadrennial studies and maps out what they must contain.
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