Washington, D.C., November 14, 2012 – The Project on Defense
Alternatives released a study today outlining a new global strategy for
addressing security threats that also promises to free hundreds of
billions over ten years for debt reduction and economic revitalization.
Entitled Reasonable Defense: A Sustainable Approach to Securing the Nation, the report sees the principal challenge to the United States as being economic in nature rather than military.
Click here to download a copy of Reasonable Defense
Reasonable Defense
proposes focusing the US military on those missions and
responsibilities for which it is best suited – traditional defense,
deterrence, and crisis response – while jettisoning large
national-building efforts and counter-insurgency campaigns. It
advocates more and better-balanced security cooperation with other
nations, but sees “preventive security” initiatives to be largely the
job of the State Department. “Our military is a fabulously expensive
tool,” said the report’s principal author, Carl Conetta, “and we can no
longer afford to misuse it.”
With a Reasonable Defense posture
in place, the United States could adopt a national security budget
similar in size to that which would result under the sequester
provisions of the Budget Control Act, according to PDA co-director
Charles Knight. However, unlike that budgeting device, the proposed
reductions will be introduced gradually over a period of five years.
The PDA plan sees the defense budget stabilizing at about $462 billion
in today’s dollars. Compared with President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013
budget, this would save $550 billion over ten years.
Under the Reasonable Defense plan:
- The active component military would comprise 1.15 million personnel – a 19 percent reduction from the 2012 active-component military of about 1.42 million.
- The Navy will have a battle fleet of 230 vessels: 9 aircraft carriers, at least 23 amphibious warfare ships, and 160 other surface and subsurface combatants. This would allow annual shipbuilding to fall from the current level of 9 ships per year down to 5-6 ships.
- The United States would field 2,780 combat fighter aircraft – down from the previously planned level of 3,150. The Navy and Marine Corps variants of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would be cancelled in favor of additional procurement of F-16 and F/A-18s.
Congressman Barney Frank joined Mr. Conetta for a press briefing
today. Congressman Frank reviewed the prospects for future reductions
in US defense spending and commented, “This latest report makes the case
very persuasively that we will save even more and with less stress in
some ways, if we rethink our strategic posture and essentially scale
back what has been a multi-decade assertion that America needs to be
everywhere. And this says, you know, the Cold War is over, and things
have gotten a lot better in terms of not having a major enemy. Let’s
revise our strategic objectives to a realistic point. And then we can
save a great deal of money.”
Click here to listen to a recording of the press briefing
As Congress returns to Washington this week, it faces a myriad of issues none more alarming than the “fiscal cliff.” A Reasonable Defense offers a clear and credible alternative to the sequestration of defense
funds and provides important guidance to those who must manage the
forthcoming defense builddown. The report also shows how to best
balance the competing requirements of national security with those of
national strength.
