February 24, 2014
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s reported plan to scale back the US Army to its smallest numbers since World War II, as well as slashing pay and perks for service personnel, promises to be an uphill battle in Congress.
After more than a decade of fighting two protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military is showing some wear and tear, at least on the budgetary front. In an effort to adhere to President Obama’s pledge of scaling back military operations abroad, compounded by the grim reality of austerity measures following years of prodigious spending, the epoch of expensive US overseas military occupations appears to have waned, according to the New York Times.
The Pentagon envisions a leaner fighting machine that will still be able to win wars, but without the massive military footprint now stamped across much of the planet. Indeed, the traditional foot soldiers of the Army and Marines appear to be taking a backseat to a military more streamlined for naval operations.
While the US Navy will be allowed to keep its 11 aircraft carrier fleets, the other forces will take it on the chin in terms of overall troop strength. The US Army, which went from a post-September 11 high of 570,000 troops to 490,000 today, will continue to drop to between 440,000 and 450,000 under Hagel’s proposal, which was leaked to the Times by anonymous Pentagon officials.
This would reduce the troop strength of the US Army to its lowest level since 1940.
Meanwhile, a number of weapon systems deemed impractical by today’s military realities are expected to be axed from the budget.
Among the military hardware set for retirement is the Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, designed for destroying tanks in Western Europe at the height of the Cold War, as well as the U-2 spy plane, which is being replaced by the aerial drone Global Hawk.
At the same time, expenditures set aside for Special Operations and cyber warfare will not be affected by the cuts.