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NOVEMBER 2024

US Marines Furiously Cutting Programs As Tighter Budgets Loom

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Written by Paul Mcleary; Originally appeared at Breaking Defense.com

As old programs go, the Corps is looking at new cyber capabilities and getting back into the air defense game.

The Marine Corps think they’ve found a path forward for pushing more money to areas Defense Secretary James Mattis wants them to spend. And that involves kicking a growing list of old programs to the curb.

The two-year budget boost negotiated by Congress will come to a crashing halt with the 2020 defense budget with sequestration budget caps returning, So, to modernize “we have to divest,” Brig. Gen. James Acton, director of the Capabilities Development Directorate said.

US Marines Furiously Cutting Programs As Tighter Budgets Loom

The 2019 budget “was designed to plug holes. Honestly that was when we first started looking at divestment issues,” he told the Expeditionary Warfare Conference in Annapolis Md. on Wednesday The 2020 and 2021 budgets “are all about modernization, and modernization requires us to adapt and innovate to make us more lethal.”

But the cuts all come with a cost, Adams warned, and every decision is difficult. “It’s easy to say I need this new thing or that new thing, but no one ever comes to the table with an offset,” Adams said. “But we have to figure out where the trades are, if we’re going to modernize and accelerate.”

Mattis has made sure that the armed services are focused on his favorite concept — “lethality” — and the Pentagon rank and file have taken that message to heart. It’s rare that a civilian or military official talks these days without underscoring their sole focus is on making the force more lethal.

That might be harder than the past two years of budget stability have made it appear. President Trump this week demanded his cabinet officials cut 5 percent from their 2020 budget requests, a call that appears, in some fashion, to include the Pentagon.

“We know what the new budget is for the Defense Department. It will probably be $700 billion,” Trump said of the fiscal year 2020 request.

A budget of $700 billion is a 2.3 percent reduction from the previous year’s request of $716 billion. But, Trump added, “we’re doing things that we have never done on this scale. So, that included a lot of rebuilding of our military. Despite that, I am going to keep that at $700 billion, defense.” (Caution: we’re not sure if Trump was speaking about the DoD budget or the broader national security budget.)

Adams, speaking around the same time as the president on Wednesday, observed that budgets are “only going to get the same or less, in my opinion, down the road. So, in order to modernize, we have to divest.”

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karakajeen

Russian Military Response in Syria ⚔️ iran ? is awesome

Jesus

“””Since the end of the Cold War, “across the joint force, we’ve allowed the air defense capability to languish,” he said.””” The Marine Corps can buy the Pantsir, Tor and S350 mobile air defense systems from the Russians, that would suit its needs ideally. Of course they need to get an exemption so that they will not be sanctioned.

Assad must stay (gr8rambino)

ahhahaahhaha!!

Jesus

And they would be far more effective and cheaper than anything US MIC would produce. They want to money and get the best value…..buy effective off the shelf proven systems.

Assad must stay (gr8rambino)

They should just join russian army too lol

putinbeater

until today russia tried to join NATO

Assad must stay (gr8rambino)

whats new solomon?

putinbeater

nothing. russia is still not member of NATO :D

and how do you do?

Assad must stay (gr8rambino)

why do u think u canbeat putin? :))))

putinbeater

this is only for censor in SF :))

i have ambivalent attitude to putin. he made some godd things, but stopped the modernization of russian industry, he stopped the building of russian silicon valley, he did nothing against corruption and oligarchs (1 piece in prison, 2 pieces abroad is nothing). he does nothing against transfer of money from russia in abroad.

so, he is better then most of russian leaders in the 20th century, quite godd, but not very good and sure not great.

i dont need to beat one old man :)

Assad must stay (gr8rambino)

He is the best thing that has happened to russia since long long time!

Assad must stay (gr8rambino)

im ok, thanks :))

Jens Holm

USA missiles and like that are not that bad, and they have many more then the russians.

So they should buy Armata tanks as well, because even Russians cant effort to produce and use them, and then the dollar will collapse :)

Assad must stay (gr8rambino)

i wish they cut their budget to 0, would make alot more peace in the world lmao

Sinbad2

The US is broke, all their spending is based on what they can borrow.

Jens Holm

USA is not broke at all. I see no sign of that. You cant compare with own primitive lousy systems of Yours.

The Western economics are integrated, where we own each other, so we might reduce USA some , but it never will collapse unless we do it too.

Thats goes for China and even the midget oligarks in Moscow.

Do You compare with Lira, Syrian pounds, Russian Rubels, shekels or what.

Sinbad2

“The Western economics are integrated, where we own each other, so we might reduce USA some , but it never will collapse unless we do it too.”

Exactly we will all sink together, you will be so shocked when the money printing shows its true colours.

Jens Holm

I see no sinking. I do see ups and downs. But if one goe up or down, the others follow. Thats the whole point.

gustavo

That is why USA need to make war all the time to some country to create an enemy all the time (Russia for example), other wise military budge would be reduced, and the general economy would be downed.

Jens Holm

I dont know if Mattis and those kind are the right ones for it, but it is shown, that all forces in the world – if they can – goes into a less people and more advanced way.

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