By Associated Press. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Wednesday that the Pentagon may have to mothball up to three Navy aircraft carriers and order additional sharp reductions in the size of the Army and Marine Corps if Congress doesn’t act to avoid massive budget cuts beginning in 2014.
Speaking to Pentagon reporters, and indirectly to Congress, Hagel said that the full result of the sweeping budget cuts over the next 10 years could leave the nation with an ill-prepared, under-equipped military doomed to face more technologically advanced enemies.
In his starkest terms to date, Hagel laid out a worst-case scenario for the U.S. military if the Pentagon is forced to slash more than $50 billion from the 2014 budget and $500 billion over the next 10 years as a result of Congressionally-mandated automatic spending cuts.
The Pentagon has been ratcheting up a persistent drumbeat about the dire effects of the budget cuts on national defense, and as Congress continues to wrangle over spending bills on Capitol Hill. Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: APHagel: Smaller budget means smaller military
By Kristina Wong. A smaller Army and Marine Corps, consolidated combatant commands and a “decade-long modernization holiday” will befall the U.S. military if defense cuts known as sequestration remain in place, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.
Mr. Hagel unveiled Wednesday the results of a department-wide fiscal review that identified budget items that would be cut to accommodate $500 billion in reduced defense spending over the next decade.
If Congress does not reverse the cuts, the Army could shrink to 380,000 troops from its target strength of 490,000. Similarly, the Army Reserves, which has been mostly saved from sequestration, would face reductions.
In addition, the Navy’s aircraft carriers could be reduced from 11 to eight or nine, the Corps could field as low as 150,000 Marines instead of 182,000, and combatant commands — headquarters dedicated to a region or specific function — could be merged.
“This strategic choice would result in a force that would be technologically dominant but would be much smaller and able to go fewer places and do fewer things, especially if crisis occurred at the same time in different regions of the world,” Mr. Hagel said. Read more from this story HERE.