Political India: Engaging America

Making a rare appearance at the Pentagon to announce a “strategic review” of the defence budget, President Barack Obama spoke cautiously of his plan to trim down 490,000 troops and potentially close to $1 trillion in funding without compromising national security.

While the President avoided getting into the details of the major shift in defence policy, he summed it up saying the U.S. military would be “leaner, but... agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats”.

While $487 billion in automatic cuts will be enforced over 10 years owing to the failure of the fiscal Supercommittee to agree on funding priorities, Congressional consensus on the need for even more cuts could add an additional $500 billion in reductions, according to reports.

The broad-sweep cuts are expected to impact some high-profile next-generation programmes such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet, according to a New York Times report.

Without mentioning the rise of China as a regional heavyweight, Mr. Obama said, “We'll be strengthening our presence in the Asia Pacific, and budget reductions will not come at the expense of this critical region.” 

Power, threats

Mr. Obama's comments suggested that the U.S. would adjust to a shifting paradigm of global power and threats, specifically including a greater weight attached to the Chinese and Iranian challenges relative to the decade-long military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Speaking after Mr. Obama's comments, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said the challenges called for reshaping America's priorities in the light of the proliferation of lethal weapons and materials, the continuing impact of extremism in some regions, and most importantly the “debt problem at home that is itself a national security risk”.

The Asia-Pacific and West Asia regions were “the areas where we see the greatest challenges for the future” of the U.S. military, Mr. Panetta noted, adding that he did not believe that the U.S. had to choose between national security and fiscal responsibility. “Savings we've been mandated to achieve must be determined by strategy, not numbers alone,” the Secretary added.

Both Mr. Obama and Mr. Panetta emphasised that special operations forces and intelligence technology including drone systems would likely gain increasing salience in the post-review defence environment.