Robert Gates on Monday launched war against the defence industrial complex by scrapping major defence programmes, in a move that saw the defence secretary come under immediate fire from Congress.
In unveiling a major rebalancing of Pentagon spending plans, Mr Gates increased the emphasis on the kind of “irregular” war the US faces in Iraq and Afghanistan, while ending programmes, such as the F-22 fifth-generation fighter jet, that are considered more relevant for peer-to-peer war.
At an unusually packed Pentagon press conference, Mr Gates – who has barely received a word of criticism since replacing Donald Rumsfeld in 2006 – conceded that his decisions would be “controversial”.
Mr Gates urged Congress to “rise above parochial interests and consider what is in the best interest of the nation as a whole”, but his plea was unheard.
Within hours, politicians raised questions about his proposed cuts and reform plans for the much maligned Pentagon procurement process. In a YouTube video recorded in Afghanistan, James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican senator, lambasted President Barack Obama for “disarming America” and vowed to fight the cuts.
“I cannot believe what I heard today ... Never before has a president so ravaged the military at a time of war,” said Mr Inhofe.
While increasing spending on weapons such as the Predator that are firing missiles into the Pakistani tribal areas where al-Qaeda has established safe havens, Mr Gates cut more conventional programmes such as the VH-41 presidential helicopter designed by Agusta-Westland, the UK subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica. He also killed the CSAR-X search and rescue helicopter programme, the TSAT satellite programme and elements of the army’s Future Combat Systems network.
In proposing major reforms – that critics argue are more than long overdue – Mr Gates is wading into the same politically treacherous waters that almost cost Mr Rumsfeld his job in 2001. Mr Rumsfeld was widely rumoured to be on the ropes over his internal battle to cut major weapons programmes when 9/11 saved his job, and the defence budget.
“Clearly Secretary Gates does not have the interests of the defence industry first and foremost in his mind,” said Loren Thompson, a defence expert at the Lexington Institution.
“Gates is trying to return to a rebalancing that first was attempted by Secretary Rumsfeld ... However, Secretary Gates is repeating the mistake of his predecessor in proposing these changes without a strategic framework or political plan for getting them implemented.”
Mr Thompson questioned how the Pentagon could make dramatic changes before completing the quadrennial defence review scheduled to start later this year. Mr Gates rejected the criticisms, saying his new priorities reflected the US national defence strategy released last year.
John Murtha, the top lawmaker on the House appropriations subcommittee on defence, said the recommendations were an “important first step” but stressed that his committee would “carefully review” the plan.
Mr Gates said halting production of the F-22 would reduce the workforce for the fighter jet from 24,000 this year to 13,000 in 2011, but the number of workers involved in the Joint Strike Fighter programme would rise from 38,000 to 82,000 over the same period.
