Air Force memo outlines sweeping budget cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) - Air Force leaders will cut flying hours by nearly 20 percent and prepare for a possible end to all noncombat or noncritical flights from late July through September if Congress can't agree on a budget and billions of dollars in automatic cuts are triggered.
In an Air Force internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley laid out broad but grim steps the service will be taking in coming days and weeks to enforce a civilian hiring freeze, cancel air show appearances and flyovers, and slash base improvements and repairs by about 50 percent.
Beyond those immediate actions, Donley and Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, said in the memo that the service will make plans to chop aircraft and depot maintenance by about 17 percent and initiate widespread civilian furloughs if there is no resolution to the budget issue by March. The cut in flights would reduce flying hours by more than 200,000, the memo said.
In a similar memo, the Navy said it faces a $4 billion shortfall in its operations and maintenance accounts and called for "stringent belt-tightening measures" if a new budget is not passed and the military has to operate with the same funding it got for the previous fiscal year.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, in the memo obtained by The Associated Press, said a number of actions must be considered to seek cost savings, including postponing the decommissioning of ships, if necessary. Other possible steps included a civilian hiring freeze, termination of temporary employees, cuts to base improvements or repairs and reductions in travel, information technology and administrative spending.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other military leaders have been predicting dire consequences if Congress fails to pass a new budget and automatic cuts take place. The Pentagon is facing a spending reduction of nearly $500 billion over a decade. An additional $110 billion in automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs will take effect in early March if no agreement is reached.
In a briefing with Pentagon reporters, Donley said the Air Force is not targeting a particular amount in savings to achieve, but is taking steps to curtail spending where possible at this point without having an irreversible effect on the service and not impacting the nation's ability to wage war.
The Air Force accounts, Donley said, will bear about up to 20 percent of the Defense Department reductions
Asked about Panetta's directive to possibly cancel ship, aircraft and depot maintenance in the third and fourth quarters of this fiscal year if there is no budget solution, Donley said the Air Force will review each type of aircraft and its requirements.
"We're trying to take prudent actions now that are as reversible, recoverable as possible," Donley said. "We're trying to protect maintenance for aircraft and weapons systems sustainability as long as we can into the fiscal year."
Welsh said commanders will make decisions on how best to curtail flying and that the Air Force will try to protect training flights as long into the year as it can.
But, he noted, "if sequestration hits and the multibillion-dollars reductions fall on the last two quarters of the fiscal year, there is no way not to impact training, flying hours and maintenance, which are things, right now, we are trying to protect as long as we can."
Officials said that civilian pay is about 40 percent of the Air Force's operations and maintenance budget. Panetta has made it clear that if there is no budget agreement, the civilian workforce will face sweeping cuts and unpaid furloughs.
There are about 800,000 civilians across the Defense Department, and nearly 1.4 million in the active-duty military. The Air Force numbers about 330,000 active-duty service members and about 143,000 fulltime civilians.
In an Air Force internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley laid out broad but grim steps the service will be taking in coming days and weeks to enforce a civilian hiring freeze, cancel air show appearances and flyovers, and slash base improvements and repairs by about 50 percent.
Beyond those immediate actions, Donley and Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, said in the memo that the service will make plans to chop aircraft and depot maintenance by about 17 percent and initiate widespread civilian furloughs if there is no resolution to the budget issue by March. The cut in flights would reduce flying hours by more than 200,000, the memo said.
In a similar memo, the Navy said it faces a $4 billion shortfall in its operations and maintenance accounts and called for "stringent belt-tightening measures" if a new budget is not passed and the military has to operate with the same funding it got for the previous fiscal year.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, in the memo obtained by The Associated Press, said a number of actions must be considered to seek cost savings, including postponing the decommissioning of ships, if necessary. Other possible steps included a civilian hiring freeze, termination of temporary employees, cuts to base improvements or repairs and reductions in travel, information technology and administrative spending.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other military leaders have been predicting dire consequences if Congress fails to pass a new budget and automatic cuts take place. The Pentagon is facing a spending reduction of nearly $500 billion over a decade. An additional $110 billion in automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs will take effect in early March if no agreement is reached.
In a briefing with Pentagon reporters, Donley said the Air Force is not targeting a particular amount in savings to achieve, but is taking steps to curtail spending where possible at this point without having an irreversible effect on the service and not impacting the nation's ability to wage war.
The Air Force accounts, Donley said, will bear about up to 20 percent of the Defense Department reductions
Asked about Panetta's directive to possibly cancel ship, aircraft and depot maintenance in the third and fourth quarters of this fiscal year if there is no budget solution, Donley said the Air Force will review each type of aircraft and its requirements.
"We're trying to take prudent actions now that are as reversible, recoverable as possible," Donley said. "We're trying to protect maintenance for aircraft and weapons systems sustainability as long as we can into the fiscal year."
Welsh said commanders will make decisions on how best to curtail flying and that the Air Force will try to protect training flights as long into the year as it can.
But, he noted, "if sequestration hits and the multibillion-dollars reductions fall on the last two quarters of the fiscal year, there is no way not to impact training, flying hours and maintenance, which are things, right now, we are trying to protect as long as we can."
Officials said that civilian pay is about 40 percent of the Air Force's operations and maintenance budget. Panetta has made it clear that if there is no budget agreement, the civilian workforce will face sweeping cuts and unpaid furloughs.
There are about 800,000 civilians across the Defense Department, and nearly 1.4 million in the active-duty military. The Air Force numbers about 330,000 active-duty service members and about 143,000 fulltime civilians.
FTA
"The Pentagon is facing a spending reduction of nearly $500 billion over a decade."
That is 50 billion a year for ten years.
The current DOD budget is 683 Billion
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Also
FTA:
"In a similar memo, the Navy said it faces a $4 billion shortfall in its operations and maintenance accounts and called for "stringent belt-tightening measures"
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The 2012 budget for the Navy was 161 billion. and they are complaining about 4 billion?
source
http://www.finance.hq.navy.mil/FMB/12pres/DON_PB12_Press_Brief.pdf (page 6)
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We spend almost as much money on our military as the rest of the planet combined, and these guys are acting like we cut a shoestring budget in half when the reality is they are being asked to cut a severely bloated budget by about 10%.Â
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If these cuts are so impossible to execute, then maybe we need to start by cutting from the top, and replacing them with people who are up to the challenge.
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It should start from the top. Have the leaders of the country fly the same birds we do and not private Air Force Jets.
I'm all for making sure our service people are well-equipped and well-trained for the work we ask them to do. I'm a veteran and, in the course of my Civil War reenactment hobby, meet a lot of young soldiers and airmen.
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But our national economy is breaking with the demands of spending over 10% of our GNP on military aid to other countries and direct expenses from the DoD. I've told young soldiers repeatedly that they need to prepare for a huge reduction in force in the next three years and to document everything that's ever happened to them so that they can get their VA claim in as soon as they ETS and are eligable.
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The fact is that our government has sent most of a generation of young Americans to war and will cut VA funding as soon as they think they can slip the bill through Congress and past the press. Congress would rather cut VA twice than forgoe a new carrier once. It isn't fair, but Congress has been sticking it to military people since 1774.
I read that Boeing tanker deal is also on the chopping block. Hope not but I wouldn't put it past Obumbler. He hates anything military.
 @lmdk2 I heard he hates freedom itself. Â
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/more crap republicans believe.
 @T H I S  @lmdk2 I heard that Romney's doppelganger has been seen in Mexico...The one that made the statements that the "real" Mitt had to deny the next day...
Nothing about reducing or eliminating consultants. Or closing some overseas bases. They want to make the most people possible scream as loud as they can to get their funding back. Kind of like the state reducing funding for DOT to transfer funds to social programs, and then asking for more money for roads. Same thing with parks. No Commanding Officer of a base, anywhere, will volunteer their base as a candidate for closing. It would be an immediate career ender.
 @Hagar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument_Syndrome
 @Hagar
"civilian pay is about 40 percent of the Air Force's operations and maintenance budget"
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"Panetta has made it clear that if there is no budget agreement, the civilian workforce will face sweeping cuts and unpaid furloughs."
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Didn't see much of anything cut from the civilian budget. I think you nailed it Hager.