Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has released details of a budget plan that cuts military spending by half a trillion dollars. This plan serves as a blueprint for the administration’s vision of how the nation’s military needs to change over the next 10 years. Panetta spoke at the Pentagon on Thursday and said that his budget plan is $33 billion smaller than the current budget.
On the new strategy for the military force, Panetta said, “The military will be smaller and leaner, but it will be agile, flexible, rapidly deployable and technologically advanced. It will be a cutting-edge force.” If the budget is approved by Congress, the savings over the next 10 years would be achieved by cutting the number of troops in the Marine Corps and Army, as well as retiring almost a dozen older Navy ships and six Air Force tactical squadrons. Troops would also see smaller pay raises that would begin in 2015. The savings will start at the 2013 fiscal year in October.
