U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will unveil his plan to drastically cut the military budget by billions of dollars later this afternoon. Hagel is going to have a tough time convincing lawmakers to approve a budget and cut troop levels military hasn’t seen since pre-World War II.

The proposal calls for the Army to be cut to about 450,000 troops, down from a peak of 570,000 after the Sept. 11 attacks. Troop levels were already slated to drop to 480,000 — but now even more are on the chopping block.

Hagel also wants to eliminate the fleet of A-10 “tank killer” aircraft, designed in the 1970s to go after targets on the ground. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., whose husband was an A-10 pilot, has already vowed to fight plans to retire the plane.

Also slated for retirement is the U-2 spy plane, the stalwart of Cold War reconnaissance. The military is turning to new methods of surveillance, like the Global Hawk.

I wonder what kind of impact this will have on Davis Mountain Air Force Base.

(via: MSN)

This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2014.

11 replies on “U.S. Secretary of Defense Wants to Set the Military Forces Back to Pre-World War II Era”

  1. “I wonder what kind of impact this will have on DMAFB” You dolt. It will have a major impact on Tucson. Unless we another aircraft to replace the A-10 we are in trouble. I don’t see any other type coming into play. Oh…I forgot the F-35 went to Phoenix. For sure DMAFB will get smaller. The A-10 is the most numerous unit there. Other than some C-130’s and a rescue helicopter unit.
    But the Progressives in Tucson will probably cheer. Tucson will take another economic hit on this one. Guess the locals can go and sell each other Birkenstocks and tie-dyed T-shirts to each other. Love to hear what Mayor Rothschild will say about this setback. Guess we need the money saved on dumping the A-10 for more entitlements.
    The A-10 is the most effective aircraft we have. The infantryman in the Army loves it. My son spoke highly of it when he was in Iraq three times.

  3. What is even worse is they are cutting benefits to military members and families. This was from a NBC article, http://www.nbcnews.com/.

    “One-percent raises would take effect, but there would be other benefit changes – making military members pay for some of their housing, cutting $1 billion in commissary subsidies and changing health-care benefits.”

    Yeah, because the military already has too many benefits and gets paid way too much for fighting two wars for over 12 years while the rest of the country watched reality shows and American Idol.

    I understand there are a lot of fraud, waste and abuse in the military. I was in the military for almost a decade. However, planning NOT to fight a major ground war is asinine. However, if the American people do not want to increase taxes to pay for our military, I guess their is no other option than to cut it. We put these wars on a credit card called our National Debt and we need to pay for it now.

    Maybe we can do a national sales WAR tax while we have troops in harms way and until we pay off the debt. So everything from a stick of gum to a purchase of a stock would have on the receipt in big fat WAR tax in red right before the total. 10% War tax should help share the sacrifice that only .45% of the American population has done for this country.

  5. Good point. The budget will never return to anything close to pre WWII levels because the defense contractors make so much money and have so much power that they will never let that happen.

    In fact, one could look at this as a standard corporate move–downsize personnel, increase expenditures on technology, profits will follow….

  6. D~M will never go away! Where else will we park all those retired A~10s? In actuality this base needs to grow and we need to expand Gila Bend into a larger base for “Operation Snowbird”. Az has more to offer military flying than anywhere in the country. Great flying weather. No rust.
    The A~10 needs a replacement before retirement and the F~35 isn’t it. The UAVs are doing a spectacular job and maybe that is the change along with attack helicopters and the AC~130s. After all, the A~10 was actually designed for the Fulda Gap and evolved into the mission it has today.
    But, we need the newer stuff to counter the buildup in WestPac. All those Big Box store dollars are being converted into stealth fighters and new aircraft carriers {yes, plural}. Where is the midpoint? Yeah, “no more war” is a great notion but until we get there….
    Personally, the downsizing of the NG is a bigger mistake.

  7. Harold Simpson:
    Great points. The Fulda Gap is ancient history but Afghanistan and Iraq is not. Who knows what future battlefield will present itself. The A-10 can still last into the future. It’s loiter time and weapons payload are wonderful. tactical air support will always be critical. (ie. P-47’s Il-2, Hs-129’s,A-10 etc) I know you will know what I am saying…as for the rest of the Tucson Weekly readership those planes are unknown.
    DMAFB you are right will never goo away but its mission and role will. Hence its impact on the Tucson economy.

  8. The 355 Wing at DMAFB is for the support and training of A-10 pilots. Thousands of personal are directly or indirectly involved with the operation of the A-10. If there is no replacement for that mission at DMAFB of equal size, it will directly hurt the local economy. Plus it stated in the NBC report that in 2017, they are going to go through another round of base closures. Which if we do not have a current major mission, DMAFB is a good option to close.

    Also do not think because of the Bone Yard, they will not close the base. It was proposed in the 1990s, that they could turn the base into the home of the guard unit at the airport (162nd FW) and keep the bone yard operation. However, since it would not be a active duty base, thousands of people would not be living and working there.

    Tucson survives because of government jobs. We have the Border Patrol, which employees thousands of people in the Tucson Sector and they all spend their money in Tucson and the surrounding area. We have Ratheon, which is directly supported by government contracts, that employees thousands of people. However, the biggest impact is DMAFB and this discontinuing of the A-10 will drastically hurt this community. I am here because of that base and it’s mission. Most of government workers are in the Middle Class and have disposable income to spend in Tucson. I have brought cars in Tucson. I love to eat at the local restaurants. Renee’s Organic Oven, Loving Spoonfuls, Urban Fresh, Zayna’s, Mexico in Season, Snow Peas, and Tasteful Kitchen are just some of the local restaurants I patron. I routinely go to Bookmans. You used to find me at Ike’s Coffee (not anymore sense some crappy franchise is going to go there now) spending even more of my money. Many of us government employees own houses and pay property taxes.

    This reduction in forces is going to hurt this community.

  9. The down-sizing of our defense…may have a good out come….But will
    China (et al) like the reduction of our defense?…Many of the piece parts
    of our systems are made in China,…,etc.

  10. Frank,

    That is a whole other issue. It is a national security issue of how a lot of our electronic systems in our military are made by foreign companies. Our government should always buy American when possible. We spend literally over a trillion dollars when it comes buying supplies for our government. I wonder how much of that is flushed out of our country to places like China.

    I know my grandparents probably would have never guessed that our number one trading partner would be a communist totalitarian country. What does that say about our “free market” and “Democracy” when we allow products to come from a country that does not live up to them?

  11. DMAFB will never go away as long as it has pimps like Barber in Congress and people with similar roles in the county. The US gov’t has long recognized the base as redundant and unnecessary, but the money has so corrupted local politics that the county is dominated by people who profit from War and the Fear of War. And, as Mike points out, the Border Patrol and Homeland Security are part of the same scam, defended by the same people. And Raytheon and the U of A…Is it the the fear of others or the love of money that brought us to this point?

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