Gates to cut Pentagon pet projects

For the first time in quite a while, the Pentagon won’t be getting all the toys it wants for Christmas.

Defense Secretary Robert gates has announced cuts focused on specific obsolete or ineffective projects in an effort to reign in Defense spending and reform the Pentagon’s contracting policies. Many of the projects cut had become favorites on the internet and on shows like Discovery’s Future Weapons.

Among the orphaned programs are: the hovering “Multiple Kill Vehicle” and the Airborne Laser aircraft (seen left), which comprised about 15 percent of the Missile Defense Agency’s budget and saves $1.4 billion.

He also plans to cut most of the Future Combat Systems dreamed up by the Army.

He did add some funds (largely to make up for the cuts) for tools often used in Iraq and Afghanistan like Predator drones. He also beefed up the military’s budgets for medical research, health care and supportive services for military families.

The most surprising of the cuts was probably the halt in production of F-22 Raptors. The original order of 187 planes will still be filled but there are no plans in the budget to purchase any more.

This budget will not go down easily in the Pentagon or in Congress. The F-22, the DDG-1000, and the Future Combat Systems are the favored systems by much of the Air Force, Navy, and Army brass, respectively. (It may not be coincidence that he’s going after all three services equally; at least he can’t be accused of chumming up with one at the expense of the others.) The F-22 in particular is also a favorite of many legislators—the result of politically shrewd subcontracting that spread out production of the plane to key districts in 46 states.

Contracting is another area that Gates is seeking to reform. He wants to slash the corps of service contractors, who come from the defense industry, and to replace them with civil-service professionals, 13,000 of whom he wants to hire next year, expanding to 30,000 new officials over the next five years.

I may still have to wait a while to see the Air Force made to do bake sales, but my day may come yet.