From AOL Defense

 

[excerpt]

 

New Obama Strategy Looks Misguided, Predictable, Underwhelming

By August Cole

Published: January 4, 2012

 

Elections, as President Barack Obama knows, are a time of big ideas.

 

So it would seem fitting that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will roll out a new Pentagon national defense strategy just a few days into a make-or-break election year for the White House. [Panetta is expected to formally unveil the new strategy tomorrow and President Obama should be introducing the new strategy at the Pentagon.]

I wait with baited breath (not). If the strategy is anything like the FY 2012 defense budget, it leaves a lot to be desired. Although the Navy/Marine Corps gets the biggest piece of the pie by percentage (approx. 29% that amounts to US$161.4B) and of this amount a paltry US$2.7B is designated for naval overseas contingency operations. That's the good news.

Now for the bad news … With defense spending cuts just now beginning,these numbers will likely continue to dramatically change in the coming months. Delivery of the USS Gerald Ford ((CVN 78) now costing US$12B – with an estimated cost overrun of US$1.1B) has been delayed to FY 2015 and the JHSV program was downsized. Under the caps of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) and the sequestration process, the FY 2013 US defense budget will be an estimated US526B (fully 25% less than the final FY2012 amount).

Someone who's looking forward to what the President's new defense strategy is all about, probably need to get a life!

 

FWFS,

Greg Emerson, DM1(SW), USN-Retired

Renton, WA

From DefenseNews

 

[excerpt]

 

U.S. To Drop Long-War Ability, Focus on Pacific

By MARCUS WEISGERBER, ANDREW TILGHMAN and STEPHEN LOSEY

Published: 5 Jan 2012 10:50

 

The Pentagon will abandon its ability to fight long, drawn-out wars like the ones fought in Afghanistan and Iraq as it enters the next decade.

 

Direct link to Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense, January 2012 (PDF)

This has the potential for making the nightmare days of Jimmy Carter era military seem like a vaction! No has noticed yet that the DoD seal is on the document, but the information itself is from the President. Nice way of blame-shifting it things go south!

 

FWFS,

Greg Emerson, DM1(SW), USN-Retired

Renton, WA, USA