Review suggests making military leaner, more mobile to face changing threats
By Lisa Burgess,
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — In order to counter increasing risk from highly
capable adversaries, the U.S. military should restructure its forward-deployed forces,
making them smaller, more flexible and easier to move, according to a new study
commissioned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The report, one of a dozen studies that make up the “Rumsfeld
review” of national military strategy, focuses on how conventional forces should be
designed to counter new threats facing the United States over the next 10 to 15 years.
The U.S. military faces mounting threats in three directions over the
10 years, said David C. Gompert, president of the RAND Corp.’s European operations.
Those threats include the spread of “dangerous
technologies,” such as weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles; a larger
adversary, if present U.S. policies to contain Beijing should fail; and “a growing
range of challenges below the level of full-scale war,” such as Kosovo.
“We are facing a very significant challenge,” Gompert said.
“It’s going to be harder and harder to predict where we’ll have to use our
forces.”
With the Cold War over, the Pentagon’s current practice of
stationing large numbers of forces abroad to prepare for conflict is outmoded, especially
in Europe, Gompert said.
“We could make do with less,” he said. “We have heavy
armor in Europe — the same kind of forces we’re telling the Europeans to get rid
of.”
Gompert said the two Army divisions now in Europe could be replaced
by significantly smaller forces — he suggested “two highly mobile combat
brigades.”
He cautioned, however, that any reductions of forces in Europe would
not happen overnight.
“There is no compelling reason to reduce forces in Europe,”
he said. “It’s something we could evolve towards over the next several
years.”
Meanwhile, the study says that this “smaller, but much more
capable,” integrated joint-service force in Europe should be matched by a similar
force based in the Pacific.
Each of those two standing two forces should be sufficiently equipped
to handle all but the most serious conflicts, Gompert said.
“They need to be very robust,” he said.
For all-out wars, the regional force based in the area where a
conflict breaks out could be augmented by a third “contingency force,” which
would contain the Pentagon’s strongest long-range, cyberspace and space assets.
In addition to re-tailoring forward-based forces, the study
recommends that the Pentagon invest an additional $45 billion over the next six years in
long-range strike and transportation capabilities — including a major addition to the
C-17 transport fleet that would account for “probably one-third” of the total
additional funding, Gompert said.
“The C-17 is a very good way to get large numbers of forces
pretty much anywhere you want,” Gompert said. “But that fleet would need to be
substantially grown” to meet that goal.
Other areas Gompert said should get funding boosts include the Joint
Strike Fighter, “which plays a critical role … because of its ability to conduct
quick-response attacks on critical targets”; the Marine Corps’ V-22 Osprey,
which “has had problems, but that doesn’t make it unimportant”; fast
sealift capabilities; and a host of missile programs and information operations and
warfare capabilities.
To save money, the study recommends cutting $10 billion from the
defense budget by killing four major procurement programs: the $30 billion DD-21
destroyer, the Army’s Crusader 155 mm artillery system, the B-1 stealth bomber and
the C-5A transport aircraft upgrade program.
These programs are “less compatible” with the solution to
counter threats, Gompert said.
The study’s conclusions are a double blow for the Navy —
the DD-21 was panned last week by the review panel report on military transformation,
along with the CVX, a new aircraft carrier.
The land forces study is the fourth report in the Rumsfeld review
process. Other studies recently released include space, morale and welfare, and
transforming the military forces. Despite intense questioning by both House and the Senate
members during testimony Thursday on Capitol Hill, the only review concept embraced by
Rumsfeld thus far has been national missile defense, which also has been the key element
— actually the only element — of President Bush’s nascent military
strategy.
Rumsfeld told Congress that some of the recommendations from the
review might make their way into the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally
mandated, mid-range guidance tool that lays out the military’s view of threats,
capabilities and strategies over a four-year time frame.
The services are supposed to use the QDR to figure out each
year’s budget requests, including which weapons to fund and the force structures they
will need in order to meet objectives.
The 2001 QDR, which covers the 2003-2007 defense budgets, is due for
delivery to Capitol Hill on Sept. 30.
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