Pentagon Orders Services to Plan for Cuts in New Weapon Systems

The Pentagon’s top leadership has ordered the military services to plan for the possible cancellation or delay of nearly every large new weapon system in the planning or development stages.

In a memorandum Thursday, Deputy Defense Secretary John M. Deutch asked the Army, Navy and Air Force to draw up specific alternatives for the major weapon programs planned by the services. The cost savings would pay for “improvements in other areas.”

Deutch’s memo alarmed the military services and defense contractors, who said such cuts could weaken the nation’s defenses.

The memo was intended by Deutch to be “a huge wake-up call” to the military services that they will have to delay or eliminate hardware programs or face deep cuts in other areas, a Pentagon official said Sunday.

Deutch is “telling people to take notice because we have very tough decisions coming,” the official said.

Top Pentagon officials received the memo Friday, and a number of military and industry officials expressed distress when they learned about it over the weekend.

“You’re going to hear a lot of screaming” by Air Force officials over the proposed delay of up to four years in producing the F-22 jet fighter, an Air Force official said Sunday.

Deutch, with the support of Defense Secretary William J. Perry, is searching for budget cuts because the Pentagon lacks funds to carry out its missions. Last month, the General Accounting Office said the Defense Department has underestimated its costs and exaggerated its savings, and will find it is $150 billion short over the next five years.

The memo doesn’t say how much money Deutch wants to save, so it cannot be determined how many programs could be affected.

Deutch spared no military branch, and his list includes some of the services’ most treasured gems:

The Army was ordered to “develop a program alternative that terminates” the only new programs under development, such as the Comanche helicopter and the Advanced Field Artillery System. It means the Army will have to settle for only upgraded versions of the Apache helicopter and the Paladin artillery system.

The Air Force, Deutch said, should prepare for possible cancellation of the Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile as well as for a four-year delay in the F-22 fighter and a seven-year delay in its Joint Primary Aircraft Training System.

The Navy was told to submit plans for slowing production of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and new attack submarines, as well as for canceling the Marine Corps’s V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.