Where are the Savings?

Precision guided munitions than can destroy targets in any weather, day or night, and stealth bombers than can pierce the most heavily defended airspace invisible to radar, has transformed America from a superpower into a hyper-mega superpower. With conventional weapons so much more effective in modern war, one has to wonder why the defense budget is approaching Cold War highs instead of decreasing.

With so much money available the US Navy continues to decrease steadily, the Air Force flies worn out aircraft built in the 70’s and 80’s, and the Army never seems to have enough troops. Part of the problem is the military hanging on to and purchasing weaponry that it doesn’t really need.

To replace its Cold War legacy fighters, the Air Force says it needs 1500 of the new Joint Strike Fighter, not due until the next decade, the same number of F-16s it ordered in the 1970’s. The Navy claims it requires 12 aircraft carriers, the number of flattops it possessed in 1980. The Army wants to build a $140 billion Future Combat System that is twice the price of a planned replacement for the Abrams and Bradley tanks before the Soviet Union fell.

With unmanned aerial vehicles, smart bombs, and cruise missiles so effective and in widespread use, a better number of new fighters for all the services to share would be 500. Likewise the carrier fleet could be reduced to half its present size to ensure at least 1 or 2 forward deployed at all times. Finally the Army could replace its stock of armored vehicles with off-the-shelf vehicles such as the highly successful Stryker, with the savings going to more ground troops.