2010 Budget, QDR Reflect Shift in DoD

By Amy L. Wittman, Editor in Chief

The Department of Defense (DoD), in its fiscal 2010 budget and through the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), is increasing its support of the warfighter while taking aim at costly programs that continue to underperform.

“The United States must be able to project power, protect the trade routes and deter potential adversaries near and far,” William J. Lynn III, deputy secretary of defense, told the audience at the Sea Services Luncheon of the Sea-Air-Space Exposition May 5.

The DoD plans to release its 2010 budget proposal May 6. That spending plan and the QDR, which just got under way, reflect the challenges facing the sea services and the overall national security effort.

To better meet the requirements for today's conflicts and position U.S. forces for the future, Lynn said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is reshaping the DoD budget and priorities. Gates' decisions are based on three strategic objectives, according to Lynn:

* Take care of the all-volunteer force. The budget will provide more funds for medical and psychological health programs for military members and support programs for their families.

* Establish an institutional home for the warfighter in the budget. This is to re-balance the forces “toward irregular warfare while still hedging against the longer-term risks of larger, more sophisticated adversaries.” This means increasing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support, particularly through unmanned platforms, as well as growing special operations forces and global partnerships.

* Conduct far-reaching reform of the acquisition process. This begins by making tough decisions regarding costly programs that continue to underperform. Acquisition reform, Lynn said, is a priority of Gates and President Barack Obama.

“The United States stands alone, unsurpassed, on, above and below the seas,” Lynn said. “In terms of tonnage, our battle fleet is far larger than any potential adversary or any combination of adversaries. And no other fleet has anything like the reach of combat power of a single American carrier battle group.”

DoD leaders want to strengthen irregular warfare capabilities while maintaining conventional capabilities.

Lynn said the fiscal 2010 budget request calls for increasing the buy of Littoral Combat Ships in 2010, with the goal of eventually acquiring 55. It also adds funding for intertheater lift capacity, specifically, increasing the charter for the Joint High Speed Vessels from two to four.

“In missile defense," he said, “we need to shift the balance more toward theater protection. We need to better protect our forces and those of our allies from ballistic missile attack.”

Toward that end, funding in 2010 has been increased to accelerate the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system and the Standard Missile-3 program. The budget also calls for converting six additional Aegis-class ships to provide ballistic missile defense capabilities.

Despite the additional funding in support of bolstering irregular warfare capabilities, most of the procurement and research and development budget support conventional and strategic modernization programs, Lynn said.

The QDR will look at how programs that support conventional and irregular warfare capabilities fit into the national security strategy.

“In the QDR, we will be assessing the nature of the security threats we will face in the future, and while few nations want to challenge our military power directly, we need to understand what might change that calculus in the future,” Lynn said.

Lynn has the primary responsibility for ensuring the smooth operation of the DoD as well as deciding which technologies to use, which weapon systems to buy and which business operations to employ. This includes the acquisition process.

“Citizens have lost faith in our ability to ensure that we receive a full dollar of capability for every defense dollar we spend on new technology,” he said.

To achieve real reform in the acquisition requirements process, the department is working with Congress on five initiatives:

* A larger, better trained acquisition work force.

* More disciplined front-end requirements process.

* A greater reliance on independent cost estimates.

* A tighter execution focus that will include greater use of fixed-price development contracts.

* A greater willingness to cancel poor performing programs.

“We need to be sure, in particular,” Lynn said, “not to make the system worse in our efforts to achieve reform. ... We need to be careful not to take away critical capabilities or add new burdens that lengthen an already lengthy process.”