The United States will cut military spending by 5% during the 2013 Fiscal Year, with the size of the Army being reduced by more than was previously expected.
Although the full details of the FY 2013 defense budget won’t be released until February when the rest of the President’s budget request is unveiled, senior Pentagon officials including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey will brief the press on the broad contours of the budget Thursday afternoon.
Already on Wednesday, however, many of the details of the budget began to leak out to the media. Pentagon officials speaking on the condition of anonymity told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday that the Obama administration intends to request $525 billion for the Pentagon’s base budget, which is a 5% decrease from the $547 billion Congress authorized for FY 2012. The administration had originally requested $553 billion last year.
The budget will also project spending cuts of $260 billion through FY 2017, according to Reuters. The Pentagon has already agreed to cut spending by $487 billion over the next decade but faces additional cuts of $500 billion under the sequestration process that will automatically go into place if Congress fails to agree to a deficit reduction plan. The details of the budget that have been leaked suggest the Pentagon is not planning for the latter scenario.
Although the Army was already believed to face the largest cuts of any service, defense officials today painted an even bleaker picture had been anticipated. The Associated Press cited unnamed Pentagon officials as saying that the Army will cut its combat brigades by as much as thirteen-from 45 to 32- or roughly a reduction of 80,000 soldiers. Other reports said the Army intended to cut at least eight combat brigades-each of which is comprised of approximately 3,500 troops. Currently, there are about 570,000 soldiers in the active-duty Army. Defense Secretary Panetta had already announced that two Army brigades would be removed from Europe.
The defense cuts are being implemented according to the principles enshrined in the Defense Strategic Guidance document that the Pentagon released earlier this month. In accordance with the administration’s “pivot” to Asia strategy, the Defense Strategic Guidance gives budgetary priority to the Naval and Air Forces that are likely to be at the forefront of future military competition in the Asia-Pacific. The President and senior administration and military leaders have said the United States will maintain its current force posture in Asia despite the looming defense cuts.
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