Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Deja Vu...

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said we need to have a military that faces a "more volatile, more unpredictable" world.

So, for starters, he is proposing…

— The active-duty Army would shrink from today's 522,000 soldiers to between 440,000 and 450,000, the smallest number since 1940 when the nation was gearing up to enter World War II. The Army currently is scheduled to be reduced to 490,000.

— The Army National Guard would drop from 355,000 soldiers to 335,000 by 2017, and the Army Reserve would drop by 10,000, to 195,000. The National Guard also would send its Apache attack helicopters to the active-duty Army in exchange for Black Hawk helicopters more suitable for domestic disaster relief missions.

— The Marine Corps would shrink from 190,000 to 182,000.

— The Navy would keep its 11 aircraft carriers but "lay up," or temporarily remove from active service, 11 of its 22 cruisers while they are modernized. The Navy would reduce from 52 to 32 its purchase of littoral combat ships, which are smaller vessels designed to operate closer to shore.

— The Air Force would retire its fleet of A-10 "Warthog" tank-killer planes for an estimated savings of $3.5 billion over five years. It also would retire the venerable U-2 spy plane, which debuted early in the Cold War as a stalwart of U.S. intelligence.


I always thought the President need to read a book on economics.  I would rather he read a history book...

5 comments:

Opus #6 said...

Walks like a Manchurian Candidate, talks like a Manchurian Candidate, acts like a Manchurian Candidate….

Brig said...

Puppets and Pawns made of soft wood with clay feet.

Euripides said...

The real irony is the double standard of the current administration about government jobs. To these socialists, only the right kind of government job can be allowed. Hence, Obama's minion Hagel wants to reduce military jobs in favor of paying for people to on food stamps.

LL said...

I think this is an opening act in terms of reductions. They expect Hillary to close the back door for them when she's in office.

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

His life long dream is to be a communist like Duhwon.