Posted on 08/09/2010 9:36:32 AM PDT by Doogle
WASHINGTON -- Officials briefed on the decision say Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to eliminate a major military command in Norfolk, Va., and try to cut the Pentagon's use of outside contractors by 10 percent next year.
The plan was to be announced at a Pentagon press conference on Monday. It is part of a broader effort to trim $100 billion from the military's mammoth budget in the next five years, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin to wind down and Congress turns its attention more to domestic priorities.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
USFLTFORCOM? We don’t need no steenkin’ ‘lantic fleet.
Yeah, God forbit that we have any agency that encourages inter-service cooperation!
Joint Forces Command has always struggled to justify its existence. Most of its functions can be transferred to Northern Command without skipping a beat.
note:...IT’S Gates fault
The only gubmint spending that this bunch of bozos can cut is in the military! Bunch of dumbells!
Joint Forces Command is where Odierno is headed in September. Wonder what is in his future?
not no more
The Kenyan Clown is determined to destroy our military.
Who needs military spending when the enemy is American citizenry? All he needs is taxation and the police.
Agreed - JiffyCom will barely be missed.
Colonel, USAFR
Many, many contractors jumping over to work for the Government now. It’s been going on for months.
Your Hope has been redistributed. Here’s your Change.
All this to advance his Socialism agenda.
>Congress turns its attention more to domestic priorities.
Just what we don’t need...more of our taxes spent on lazy welfare scumbags and leftist programs
to shore up their base of worthless human flesh. The best thing congress
could do would be to stay on vacation.
I’m a contractor here. Thanks 0bama. More reason to hate your effing Kenyan muslim guts.
“The only gubmint spending that this bunch of bozos can cut is in the military! Bunch of dumbells!”
As one who spent many years in the military I can assure you that the military is just as adept at overspending as any other government entity. In fact, I suspect that finding an entity that does not overspend would match the hunt for the needle in the haystack.
....a trillion dollars goes along way.....
There you go Virginia, thanks for your dumb vote for Obama in 08. Here’s the payback for daring to vote in a staunch republican Gov, Barry didnt like that snub.
Not to mention Rep. Nye. He is so gone in November, even if I have to hold my nose and vote for Rigell.
Another Zero adminisration “economic” housing boost for the VA tidewater area.
Whoops, that’s Randy Forbes’ district. Guess he’s paying the price for being an “R”.
REvenge? Virginia has turned against Obama and our new Republican governor has made significant cuts to bALANCE THE budget. We don’t need any federal bailouts.
At least we didn’t before this.
guess we'll have to wait to see what's in this bill too and how much actually goes to teachers
Nope, its not Forbes district. Its a dem - Glenn Nye’s district.
Even a broken clock can get it right twice a day...lots of bureaucratic fat can be cut from our military (and cutting might even improve readiness).
And do we really need $400,000 shoulder-launched missiles when our enemies use $28 RPG’s?
As Zell Miller said... “SPITBALLS”!
LLS
And a Conservative R at that.
.....guess it depends on which one your holding
I have worked there. Jiffycom is a base always looking for or faking a mission.
Yeah, I was worried it was something important for a second.
They changed LANTCOM to JFCOM when they thought there wasn’t a threat to CONUS after the Cold War, and then, when they realized there was after 9/11, did they change JFCOM back to something useful? Of course not - lets add another command with a redundant mission instead!
I always figured the only reason JFCOM was still there was just for aspiring one-stars to have an extra place to punch their joint duty tickets.
LLS
How true. Defense is constitutional mandated. It should be the last thing cut.
Wasn’t JFCOM one of Rumsfeld’s wet dreams, along with ‘transformation’?
No they adopted the name tranformation command to fly under the radar. The command picked the name not Rumsfeld. Remsfeld was pleased at their selection.
What is the $400k missile?
and further punish a red state (loss of jobs and economic impact of base)
I’m certainly not going to jump on them when they’re doing something right. I just wish they’d apply this same logic to the rest of the government. There are entire cabinet-level departments that are just as redundant as JiffyCOM.
As in increased domestic spending. I don't know is this closing is warranted or not but I do know that any savings will be matched by spending increases on programs for the Democrats client groups 10 to 1 for each saved dollar.
Agree with that point. Defense is looking like the only adult in the room willing to make some cutbacks. But not HHS, Interiror, Education, etc.,etc., etc. THey more than make up for any cuts elsewhere.
Gee, I thought Fox (I know the article is originally from AP), would not allow editorials to be passed off as news.
After all, the Military only accounts for only 1/4 of the entire national budget, while Social Security and Medicare make up 1/2 !!
When the Cold War ended, NATO restructured, and the SACLANT position went away. The problem was under Goldwater-Nichols, every single U.S. military unit in the world had to belong to some Unified Command. CONUS forces belonged to LANTCOM, regardless of if they were ultimately meant to fall under SACLANT in war.
LANTCOM was first reacronymed "USACOM", to reflect its lack of an Atlantic mission, and later was redesignated JFCOM, and CONUS forces remained assigned to JFCOM. JFCOM's missions were joint training, providing forces to other commands, and "Transformation". NATO created a "Supreme Allied Commander, Transformation" (SACT). Last year, SACT was taken over by Europe, leaving the JFCOM commander with no NATO role.
JFCOM's missions conflict with Goldwater-Nichols guidance which created the Vice Chairman of the JCS to handle joint coordination and transformation.
After 9/11, U.S. Northern Command was created. NORTHCOM was only assigned the CONUS military forces previously assigned to NORAD and a few other forces. NORTHCOM and JFCOM actually share their Navy component, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, the old Atlantic Fleet.
There was little reason for LANTCOM to continue under another name after the Cold War ended, and there was no reason for JFCOM to exist after NORTHCOM was created.
This action is long overdue. Reassign Army Forces Command, Air Force Air Combat Command, and Marine Corps Forces Command to NORTHCOM, assign the joint development role to JCS/J7, and the transformation role to Vice Chairman of the JCS, and jettison JFCOM for good.
JiffyCom predates Bush/Rumsfeld. It became JFCOM in 1999, and LANTCOM/USACOM's mission change occurred in 1993.
Thanks. Old age, don’cha know ....
but when Obama goes on a revenge mission on Virginia, you can guarantee, it will be more than just this that gets cut.
ping
JFCOM would be my guess.
Just watched Gates’ briefing. He’s directing the first two sets of manpower cuts in Pentagon senior staffs and some procedural “fixes.” The issue about USJFCOM is RECOMMENDED. Getting rid of USJFCOM isn’t quite so simple. Congress has to make that determination and it must go through the BRAC process. It’ll take several years to come to fruition, IF it even does.
good thing they put out a press release, or no one would have noticed...
Transfer FORSCOM, USFF, and ACC back to the Army, Navy, and Air force and let the services get back to training, manning, and equipping.
By the way, the whole briefing and script is at the Defense Business Board homepage.
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