Free Republic

Demoralizing Hagel tells military to prepare for cuts, ‘appreciate’ its ‘limits’ Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel tried to mollify worried military leaders Wednesday, speaking publicly for the first time about the Defense Department’s pressing budgetary woes. Widespread cuts to the defense budget have led DoD to impose furloughs on civilian employees, defer critical maintenance projects, and consider cutting benefits to military families. Military employees who attended Hagel’s speech at the National Defense University did not hesitate to express their fears, pressing Hagel to explain why benefits and salaries have been placed on DoD’s chopping block. “Why are we still furloughing?”...

When the Obama administration outlined its plans to cut big weapons programs, some of the military industry’s allies in Congress assumed, as they have in the past, that they would have the final say. But over the last week, the White House has prodded Congressional leaders to strip several billion dollars’ worth of extra equipment out of a wartime spending bill. Experts say that effort suggests Mr. Obama should be able to reshape the Pentagon’s spending practices. The developments have shaken up the industry. In the past, military contractors have routinely beaten back attempts to cancel weapons programs by lobbying...

Seeking a Cheap Defense by: Heather Latham, April 09, 2009 On March 26th, three panelists met at a Heritage Foundation event. They discussed the new Levin-McCain legislation. According to a press release on Levin’s website, “[t]he bill would address the unreasonable cost and schedule estimates, unrealistic performance expectations, immature technologies, and repeated program changes that have led to explosive cost growth and costly schedule delays on so many of our major defense acquisition programs.” General Dennis Reimer was one of the panelists and a former chief of staff for the United States Army. Reimer said, “We know what the issues...

The Defense Department is set to replace all of its substandard military family housing units by 2009, a senior DoD official told a congressional committee March 3. The proposed fiscal 2005 DoD budget "allows the department to stay on track to eliminate nearly all of its inadequate military family housing units by FY 2007, with complete elimination by 2009," noted Philip W. Grone in prepared remarks for the House Subcommittee on Military Construction. He is principal deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment. Out of its $401.7 billion fiscal 2005 budget proposal, Grone noted DoD is requesting $4.2 billion...