Experts: Pentagon Strategic Plan Would Produce Aging, Hollow Military

Washington Free Beacon - The recommendations in the Department of Defense’s latest strategic review would produce both a hollow and aging military unable to engage in simultaneous conflicts involving U.S. interests, defense budget experts said Tuesday.

The experts spoke at the Brookings Institution about the Pentagon’s efforts to prepare for $500 billion in spending cuts during the next decade due to budget sequestration.

Mackenzie Eaglen, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, noted that the sequestration cuts come on the heels of about $1 trillion in military spending reductions already enacted under President Barack Obama’s administration.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel discussed the so-called “Strategic Choices and Management Review,” the Pentagon’s options for responding to the cuts, at the end of last month.   More