Posted on 01/05/2012 9:42:53 AM PST by NormsRevenge
The US military will become "leaner" while maintaining superiority as it switches focus to the Asia-Pacific, US President Barack Obama has announced.
In a rare appearance at the Pentagon, he unveiled a far-reaching defence review under which thousands of troops are expected to be axed.
He said the tide of war was receding, and the US needed to renew its economic strength.
The Pentagon faces more than $450bn (£288bn) in cuts over the next decade.
"So yes, our military will be leaner," Mr Obama told reporters, "but the world must know - the United States is going to maintain our military superiority with armed forces that are agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats."
...
There's the growing pressure on the defence budget in an age of austerity.
The commitment of US combat forces in Iraq is over and the developing draw-down of US numbers in Afghanistan makes this a good moment for a re-appraisal.
There is also a broader desire to re-orientate the focus of US defence policy away from the Middle East and towards Asia.
Today will not be the moment for detailed announcements about troops cuts and weapons programmes delayed or cancelled. But cuts there will be in due course, with more US troops likely to be brought home from Europe.
The US Army and the Marine Corps will be reduced in number and the US Marines will return to their traditional role as a rapid intervention force.
The focus for the future looks to be on what the Pentagon calls "the Air-Sea Battle" - the creation of forces capable of containing a rising military player in the Asia-Pacific region. Nobody says so explicitly, but it's China they clearly have in mind.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
There’s the growing pressure on the defence budget in ‘an age of austerity’.
The Age of Austerity?
That’s a hoot.
just call it The Obama Years ..
Who brought on the debt like never before?
So higher taxes creates jobs and a smaller military makes stronger.
.Reuters.
U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the Defense Strategic Review at the Pentagon near Washington, January 5, 2012. ..
the only way to gear up for the chinese is with alot more F-22’s.... the chinese are playing the same game we played with hitler during ww2... germany had the best damn equipment, and the most powerful stuff around... they just did not have enough of it.... we beat them through sheer numbers of inferior equipment... the only question china has to ask is, how many j-20’s does it take to shoot down an F-22, multiply that number by our current fleet size, and presto!! they have air superiority....re-open the f-22 line(hell, they would probably be cheaper than the boondoggle F-35)
What's this stuff about the Marines 'returning to their traditional role'? I wasn't aware that the doctrine for the USMC had changed? It was the lack of Army infantry that forced the Pentagon to treat Marine & Army battalions as 'interchangeable'. Not like the Marine Corps as an institution had a whole lot to say about the matter.
Thousands of troops are expected to be axed.However I have found funds to extend unemployment payments.
The politicians in the pictures are smiling. The miliary officers are not. Interesting...
The "old" military-types are few and far between, and we now can look forward to a small, sissified "fighting" force, that would rather hold hands around a campfire with camel-jockeys and goat-humpers, singing Kumbaya and chanting "can't we all just get along?".
Sickening.
The officer on the right looks pissed.He might be thinking,”This guy’s Dad knocked up a 17 year old to get a green card,who would have thought it would come to this....”
America's national hero, Jimmah Cahta also gutted the military, and it took Ronald Raegan several years to build it back up. Hopefully, the wimpy-in-chief won't get too far with this program before the country throws him out on his A$$.
In the days of the cold war (when the dollar budget was about 55%-60% of what it is today) the criteria was to fight three major wars.
I guess we're cannibalizing our insurance policy so that the pigs can feed at the trough for another day or two.
Anyone want to bet that there will be an Obama policy to protect the homos from being part of the RIF?
At the unclas’d level, a number of the F-22’s systems are specifically vulnerable to Chinese mischief. It will take significant retooling of the electronics to harden them sufficiently.
The bastard never talks about a ‘leaner’ government.
Is that (1,219,995) number including the civilian contractors?
Pennetta said he couldn’t even calculate the actual number of civis, there were so many.
Well, then here is my question (scenario)... the chinese begin building semi stealthy, fast maneuverable aircraft (j-20)... and crank them out the way they do everything, not alot of quality control, but alot of numbers... suddenly, you got 1500 j-20’s inbound.... what aircraft, and in what numbers, do we need? add 20% to that number, and that is the size airforce we need
oh, and I got the 1500 number by figuring it will take 4 or 5 to shoot down 1 F-22, based upon current fleet size
I noticed that, too. Very interesting, indeed.
Externally, cut Europe and Middle East troop levels in half, send to Pacific.
Internally, put 250K of the 1.2M on the Mexican border.
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