Defense Undersecretary Sees Military Spending at RiskNovember 12, 2010
 Ashton Carter, the Defense Undersecretary, acknowledged this week that the sputtering economy, the growing U.S. deficits and a changing political climate could adversely impact the U.S. military’s ability to fund real growth spending, according to a Reuters report. Carter, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, told defense industry executives and defense officials at separate meetings that he still hopes that curtailing overhead spending could lead to projected 1% real growth in overall defense spending over the next five years. Defense executives and stock holders have become increasingly concerned that fiscal reality might lead the Pentagon to shelve or scale down multi-billion contracts. After the recent election of a new crop of fiscal conservatives who campaigned on promises to slash the deficit, their worries have only grown more acute. While Republicans are known to be big spenders when it comes to defense, several Tea Party Republicans elected last week have promised to trim the deficit by any means necessary. Carter said that the defense industry must also integrate affordability into new weapons, a vital aspect because military personnel and healthcare costs keep skyrocketing. Underscoring the importance of containing costs, Carter released a seven-page memorandum with steps to help do so for weapons and services, according to Reuters. "He's in a race to get points on the board before the next Congress comes in late January," said Jim McAleese, adding that the memo titled "implementation directive for better buying power" was signed November 3, the day after the election, according to the exclusive report. "This had been in the works for some time, but it obviously took on greater urgency with the election." Carter sent the memos to the secretaries of each of the military services to push them to build affordability targets for weapons programs that would be similar to performance parameters. |
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