Study: Pentagon could cut thousands of employees
September 24, 2013 1:46PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — Four former members of the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff say the military could shed 60,000 more troops than planned and 50,000 civilian employees without hurting U.S. fighting power.
Some $50 billion in budget cuts are recommended in a new report released Tuesday that was written by a 17-member panel including two former vice chairmen of the joint chiefs, a former Air Force chief and former Navy chief. The recommended cuts would replace future rounds of automatic, across-the-board cuts in the Pentagon’s budget as part of a deficit reduction deal two years ago.
Writing for the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, the authors recommended 27 ways to trim costs under a strategy that focuses less on nuclear and ground forces and more on air, sea, space and special operations.
