April 24, 2015

Last week the Pentagon released a report that underscores the potential cuts to military end strength, modernization, and readiness if defense budgets are held at sequester-levels in the years beyond fiscal year 2015.  

The Department received some sequestration relief in FY 2014 and FY 2015 as a result of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, but sequestration’s discretionary spending caps still remain for FY 2016 through 2021.     

The report highlights force-level and weapons system cuts that would be required across the military services:  

• Army would be reduced to 420,000 active duty soldiers, 315,000 in the National Guard, and 185,000 in the Army Reserve
• Marine Corps would be reduced to 175,000 active duty personnel
• Air Force would eliminate the KC-10 tanker fleet
• Navy would reduce the aircraft carrier inventory to a total of ten carriers
• Navy would reduce production by one fewer Virginia-class submarine and three fewer DDG-51 destroyers while delaying delivery of a new carrier by two years
• The Services would reduce the joint strike fighter production by 17 aircraft, five fewer KC-46 tankers, and six fewer P-8A aircraft  

Concern over readiness and national security were reinforced during a press conference earlier this year when Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel stated, “…the only way to implement sequestration is to sharply reduce spending on readiness and modernization, which would almost certainly result in a hollow force…the resulting force would be too small to fully execute the President’s defense strategy.”  

Debt reduction is a national priority, but MOAA believes the meat-axe approach of sequestration will force deep cuts that increase threats to our national security and our men and women in uniform.