DoD Budget Threatens Cuts to Crucial Programs

The House and Senate have now approved their versions of the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2006. Both proposals, like the President’s request, currently include an almost 5 percent increase in overall defense spending over last year’s bill. For this, the Congress and President Bush should be commended. But now, with the overall budget numbers set, the program-by-program review and hard detail work must begin. This work is much needed since, at the "micro" level, the budget contains several troubling aspects – aspects that were highlighted by Center for Security Policy President Frank J. Gaffney in testimony recently delivered before the House Budget Committee.

As Mr. Gaffney testified, the FY2006 budget is marred by defense cuts to crucial programs that are essential to assuring America’s continuing security in a dangerous world. "The sorts of platforms that are the focus of most of the defense budget cuts – an aircraft carrier, nuclear submarines, F/A-22s, the V-22 Osprey and C-130s have in common an inherent flexibility that make them valuable investments in most scenarios currently in prospect."

Among the more disturbing provisions of the current defense budget is its slashing of the United States Navy carrier battle fleet. With the proposed early retirement of the USS John F. Kennedy, America’s carrier force would be cut to a dangerously low level, weakening its ability to project power globally. This drawdown comes even as Communist China energetically seeks to develop a powerful blue-water navy.

In addition, Mr. Gaffney criticized cuts to the U.S. Navy submarine force, "Especially worrisome is the decline in the number of nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) contemplated by a build-rate of just one-per-year for the foreseeable future." The much-diminished SSN force structure that would inevitably follow from this low-rate construction would have far-reaching consequences. Mr. Gaffney warned that, "Such unilateral disarmament is reckless in the face of the emerging challenges to our maritime power and interests."

American dominance of the skies will also be jeopardized by the current budget proposal. Even though hostile nations continue to develop their advanced fighter forces while proliferating highly capable surface-to-air missile systems, funding for the construction of our most promising air superiority asset, the F/A-22, would be sharply cut. In light of this troubling development, Mr. Gaffney stated, "I am particularly struck by the reduction in the number of F/A-22 Raptors being purchased, in light of the plane’s extraordinary performance and the prospect that it alone among America’s fighter/attack inventory may be able to establish and maintain air superiority over territories increasingly defended by advanced anti-aircraft missile systems."

Concerning missile defense, Mr. Gaffney argued strenuously in support of increased government funding for several promising technologies, as well as rapid development in other areas. "(I) would urge a far more aggressive investment in sea-based anti-missile systems using the Navy’s Aegis ships and full funding for the Airborne Laser program, coupled with accelerated funding for developing and fielding missile defenses where they will do the most good – in space."

The state of America’s aging nuclear arsenal also troubled Mr. Gaffney, who warned "Our stockpile is not as safe and reliable as we could make it" and that a resumption of nuclear testing is needed to permit such improvements to be made and to diagnose and correct the Nation’s yawning vulnerabilities to electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) attacks.

If in the next few months, the defense program cuts advance through Congress unchallenged, they could severely hinder our military’s ability to modernize and adapt to new dangers on the world stage. In this era of global conflict, such penny-foolish-and-pound-reckless measures could prove not only to be harmful in the short run, but possibly disastrous in the long run. The Center for Security Policy urges the authorizing and appropriating committees to heed Mr. Gaffney’s recommendations and rectify shortfalls in the FY2006 budget that threaten to imperil the Nation’s future security interests.

Frank J. Gaffney’s testimony before the House Budget Committee on 16 February 2005, can be read by clicking here.