Authorization Bill Is a Clear Sign of Refocused Military PrioritiesOctober 16, 2009
 President Barack Obama scored a big victory when the U.S. House and Senate earlier this month passed the 2010 Defense Authorization Bill — legislation that slashed a slew of entrenched weapons programs. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, tried and failed to kill many of the same programs but Obama and his Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, have pressed hard to refocus military spending, according to an article in Defense News. This victory is likely to embolden the administration to make deeper cuts next year to legacy programs, say analysts. "Congress largely rolled over for the White House," Mackenzie Eaglen, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Defense News. While Congress usually changes about 5% of the defense bill sent to them, this year the figure was much less. "This gives the White House a green light for next year to make even more significant cuts." The administration is refocusing the defense budget to prepare for more irregular warfare, such as insurgencies and attacks on U.S. interests worldwide, and countering high-end threats like space systems, cybersecurity and long-range missile attacks. The cuts reflect a shift away from preparation to fight a conventional war with an enemy with a massive army. The Army's Future Combat Systems and the Air Force’s F-22 stealth fighter were designed to engage an enemy that may no longer exist, according the Defense News article. These systems were meant to fight militaries "that look like ours and fight like ours," Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told Defense News. "But everyone has learned that they can't fight us that way and win." Here are some of the changes underway with the 2010 Defense Authorization Bill:
(U.S. Navy photo by the Missile Defense Agency (Released)) |
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