Reducción de Gastos de Defensa en EE.UU

Where the Defense cuts are coming from

Monday, August 16, 2010

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates laid out a broad swath of cost-saving initiatives last week. We break down what he said:

Contractor-directed cuts:

-- The amount spent on contractors, as part of the total Defense Department workforce cost, has grown from 26 percent in 2000 to 39 percent last year. Now the Pentagon will reduce funding for support contractors by 10 percent per year for the next three years.

-- The department will immediately reduce by 10 percent funding for advisory and assistance contractors in the intelligence field.

Defense Department-directed cuts:

-- The Pentagon will freeze the number of positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, defense agencies and combatant commands for the next three years. No more full-time OSD positions will be created after this year to replace contractors, except for "critical needs." Citing "brass creep" -- or cases in which people of higher and higher rank are assigned jobs that could be handled by lower-ranked staff -- Gates said he is also freezing the number of civilian senior executives and general and flag officers.

-- The Defense Department will complete a review by Nov. 1 to determine what its people "should be doing, where, and at what level of rank." After the review, the Pentagon will have two years to cut in half the increase in the number of positions -- both civilian and officer -- since 2000.

-- The Pentagon is doing too many reports and studies with no idea of the total cost and whether they are worth the time and resources, Gates said. As a result, the Pentagon will freeze the number of DOD-required oversight reports, cut by 25 percent the dollars allocated to advisory studies, track and publish the cost of preparing each report in the front of every document and review by Oct. 1 all oversight reports to reduce their number.

-- The Defense Department will review its numerous outside boards and commissions -- which total 65 and cost $75 million each year in just the Office of the Secretary of Defense alone -- to eliminate those no longer needed, focus the efforts of those that are and cut the total funding by 25 percent next year. Even unpaid boards require funding for staff and other costs, Gates said.


-- The department will review by Nov. 1 all of its intelligence missions, organizations and contracts to eliminate duplication and will immediately freeze the number of senior executive positions in defense intelligence organizations.

Gates said he would eliminate three organizations:

-- The office of the assistant secretary of defense for networks, integration and information and the Joint Chiefs of Staff's command, control, communications and computer systems unit.

-- The Business Transformation Agency, which oversees individual acquisition programs.

-- Joint Forces Command, which was set up to make sure the military operates jointly, particularly in training and sending forces to war.