Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
InsideDefense.com
April 7, 2009
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is setting his sights on a new set of weapon systems for potential termination or restructuring -- programs owned by different services that provide commanders very similar capabilities.
Gates told reporters today that he believes the Defense Department should “take more risk” in conventional combat capability by eliminating the program of one service if that capability it provided can be delivered by a weapon system owned by another service.
“I think one area where we really haven't done as much as we should is assessing capabilities across the services and seeing where you might be able to take more risk in one service in a given program, because you have a program in another service that mitigates that,” Gates said.
Gates, who yesterday unveiled his recommendations to shake up the military services' acquisition portfolios, said he believes the Pentagon's weapon-system portfolio requires further adjustments in order to fulfill guidance he set forth last year in the 2008 National Defense Strategy.
That strategy calls for the services to “assume greater risk” in conventional combat capabilities in order to bolster the U.S. military's ability to confront non-traditional, or irregular, challenges.
As soon as this week, the defense secretary is expected to launch a sweeping assessment of the entire U.S. military enterprise -- the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) -- which he promised Congress in January would have a “dramatic” impact on the fiscal year 2011 budget the Defense Department will produce this summer.
The programs that Gates yesterday recommended for termination and restructuring in FY-10 represent the relatively easy decisions regarding where the U.S. military could cut back at little risk to its ability to convincingly defeat any enemy, said the Pentagon's No. 2 officer.
“Some places where we clearly had an edge that was quantitative and qualitative, we made a decision now,” Cartwright told reporters during the same meeting with Gates. “Many of the decisions about risk [during the FY-10 budget review] were moved to the QDR, because if you change your strategy -- if we rebalance the force for a wider spectrum of conflict, that then also changes the mix. So you've got to look then: Where do you consciously want to take the risk?”
In addition to considering cutting a program whose capability is also provided by another service's weapon, Gates said he hopes to improve the front end of the process: ensuring a joint approach in identifying new requirements.
“One of the problems we have -- and it's one of the reasons I recommended canceling CSAR-X [the Air Force's Combat Search and Rescue helicopter program] -- is that we have really come to a point where we do extraordinarily well in terms of joint operations but we do not do well in terms of joint procurement,” the defense secretary said.
“It is still very service-centered. So that's an area -- both analytically and in the way we conduct our business -- where I think we need to do better,” Gates said.
-- Jason Sherman
April 7, 2009
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is setting his sights on a new set of weapon systems for potential termination or restructuring -- programs owned by different services that provide commanders very similar capabilities.
Gates told reporters today that he believes the Defense Department should “take more risk” in conventional combat capability by eliminating the program of one service if that capability it provided can be delivered by a weapon system owned by another service.
“I think one area where we really haven't done as much as we should is assessing capabilities across the services and seeing where you might be able to take more risk in one service in a given program, because you have a program in another service that mitigates that,” Gates said.
Gates, who yesterday unveiled his recommendations to shake up the military services' acquisition portfolios, said he believes the Pentagon's weapon-system portfolio requires further adjustments in order to fulfill guidance he set forth last year in the 2008 National Defense Strategy.
That strategy calls for the services to “assume greater risk” in conventional combat capabilities in order to bolster the U.S. military's ability to confront non-traditional, or irregular, challenges.
As soon as this week, the defense secretary is expected to launch a sweeping assessment of the entire U.S. military enterprise -- the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) -- which he promised Congress in January would have a “dramatic” impact on the fiscal year 2011 budget the Defense Department will produce this summer.
The programs that Gates yesterday recommended for termination and restructuring in FY-10 represent the relatively easy decisions regarding where the U.S. military could cut back at little risk to its ability to convincingly defeat any enemy, said the Pentagon's No. 2 officer.
“Some places where we clearly had an edge that was quantitative and qualitative, we made a decision now,” Cartwright told reporters during the same meeting with Gates. “Many of the decisions about risk [during the FY-10 budget review] were moved to the QDR, because if you change your strategy -- if we rebalance the force for a wider spectrum of conflict, that then also changes the mix. So you've got to look then: Where do you consciously want to take the risk?”
In addition to considering cutting a program whose capability is also provided by another service's weapon, Gates said he hopes to improve the front end of the process: ensuring a joint approach in identifying new requirements.
“One of the problems we have -- and it's one of the reasons I recommended canceling CSAR-X [the Air Force's Combat Search and Rescue helicopter program] -- is that we have really come to a point where we do extraordinarily well in terms of joint operations but we do not do well in terms of joint procurement,” the defense secretary said.
“It is still very service-centered. So that's an area -- both analytically and in the way we conduct our business -- where I think we need to do better,” Gates said.
-- Jason Sherman