Hagel to downsize army, eliminate all attack jets

[WASHINGTON] Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to shrink the US Army to its smallest force since before the World War II buildup and eliminate an entire class of Air Force attack jets in a new spending proposal that officials describe as the first Pentagon budget to aggressively push the military off the war footing adopted after the terror attacks of 2001.

The proposal, described by several Pentagon officials on the condition of anonymity in advance of its release later yesterday, takes into account the fiscal reality of government austerity and the political reality of a president who pledged to end two costly and exhausting land wars.

A result, the officials argue, will be a military capable of defeating any adversary, but too small to carry out protracted foreign occupations.

The new US way of war will be underscored in Mr Hagel's budget, which protects money for special operations forces and cyberwarfare. In an indication of the priority given to overseas military presence that does not require a land force, the proposal will - at least for one year - maintain the current number of aircraft carriers at 11.

The Guard and Reserves, which proved capable in their wartime deployments although costly to train to meet the standards of their full-time counterparts, would face smaller reductions.

The Guard's Apache attack helicopters would be transferred to the active-duty Army, which would transfer its Black Hawk helicopters to the Guard. The rationale is that Guard units have less peacetime need for the bristling array of weapons on the Apache and would put the Black Hawk - a workhorse transport helicopter - to use in domestic disaster relief.

Under Mr Hagel's proposals, the entire fleet of Air Force A-10 attack aircraft would be eliminated. The aircraft was designed to destroy Soviet tanks in case of an invasion of Western Europe, and the capabilities are deemed less relevant today. The budget plan does maintain money for the controversial F-35 warplane, which has been extremely expensive and has run into costly delays.

In addition, the budget proposal calls for retiring the famed U-2 spy plane in favour of the remotely piloted Global Hawk.

The Navy would be allowed to purchase two destroyers and two attack submarines every year. But 11 cruisers will be ordered into reduced operating status during modernisation.

Although consideration was given to retiring an aircraft carrier, the Navy will keep its fleet of 11 - for now. - NYT