Defence Secretary Gates announces $78 billion in cuts to military programmes over the next five years
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    • Reports noted that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates announced $78 billion in cuts to military programmes over the next five years, intended to help bring the government's ballooning budget deficit under control. The reductions target expensive and burdensome weapons systems, staff, independent contractors and other overhead and will take place over five years, Gates said. Calling it a key part of his "reform agenda", Gates noted that further cuts to eliminate wasteful spending will allow the military to reallocate the savings into higher priorities. He stated, "We must come to realise that not every defence programme is necessary, not every defence dollar is sacred and well-spent, and that more of nearly everything is simply not sustainable,".1 While at the start his opening statement at the Pentagon, he said, "These reform efforts, followed through to completion, will make it possible to protect the U.S. military's size, reach and fighting strength despite a declining rate of growth and eventual flattening of the defense budget over the next five years,".2 Gates noted that the measures will meet the White House goal of limiting the defence budget in 2012 to $554 billion, just a modest increase over the $549-billion budget for 2011. However, those figures do not include the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.3

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