国际英语新闻:Pentagon recommends dismantling U.S. Joint Forces Command in spending cut plan
The plan also includes freezing the number of office of the secretary of defense, defense agency and combatant command manpower positions at the fiscal 2010 levels for the next three years. Gates said he will appoint a senior task force to assess the number of positions for general and flag officers, senior executive service employees and political appointees.
"At a minimum, I expect this effort to cut at least 50 general and flag officer positions and 150 senior civilian executive positions over the next two years," he said.
One of the major components of the plan is to cut the funding for contractor personnel by 10 percent a year over the next three years, reducing what Gates called the military's "over-reliance" on contractors. He said departing contractors would no longer be automatically replaced.
Gates announced in June the Pentagon is working to save 100 billion dollars in cost cuts over the next five years. The plan announced Monday puts meat on the bones of the initiative, and Gates said the steps he is taking in the tough economic times will help the military fight the wars it faces now, and help ready the force for the wars it may face in the future.
"To be clear, the task before us is not to reduce the department's top-line budget," Gates said. "Rather, it is to significantly reduce its excess overhead costs and apply the savings to force structure and modernization."
President Barack Obama has programmed in real growth of between 1 and 2 percent into future years' defense budgets, but that is not enough to maintain today's warfighting capabilities and modernize of the military, which requires roughly 2 to 3 percent real growth. The savings in overhead are crucial to making up that difference, Gates said.
相关文章
- 欧美文化:Emergency rooms see more gun violence victims in U.S. in 1st year of pandemic: CNN
- 欧美文化:Sri Lankan military authorized to maintain law, order amid unrest
- 欧美文化:Spanish government sacks spy chief after phone tapping scandal
- 欧美文化:Turkey, Kazakhstan aim to reach 10 bln USD in bilateral trade: president
- 欧美文化:UN chief condemns attacks on civilians by armed group in DRC
- 欧美文化:Moroccan, Egyptian FMs discuss prospects of bolstering cooperation
- 欧美文化:Macron visits Berlin on first foreign trip after re-election
- 欧美文化:Ukrainian president, Swedish PM discuss defense support for Ukraine over phone
- 欧美文化:Lebanon condemns deadly attack in Egypt's Sinai
- 欧美文化:Voting begins in Philippine elections