Defense to review 'unnecessary duplication' among services
Critics have complained that vast sums of money are wasted due to the military operating four air forces, two land armies and overlapping intelligence and space programs.
The Pentagon will study six potentially controversial issues in addition to the broad but emotionally charged topic of "unnecessary duplication" of efforts, which was required in a congressionally mandated study of the roles and missions of the military services, a senior defense official said Thursday.
The Defense Department also will ensure that the study is "leadership driven," rather than guided by the services' staffs, in an effort to avoid the rigid defense of "parochial stovepipes" that were believed to dominate previous examinations of what the individual military services do, the official said.
In a background briefing at the Pentagon, the high-level civilian defense official and a senior military officer, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the department considers the review an opportunity to reconsider a wide range of policies and practices in an effort to improve efficiency.
Congress ordered the roles and mission study in the enacted fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, largely due to the efforts of House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and ranking member Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. Skelton said the study was to "identify the services' core competencies, discover the missions going unaddressed, and examine possible duplication of effort among the branches."
Critics have complained that vast sums of money are wasted due to the military operating four air forces, two land armies and overlapping intelligence and space programs.
Defining "unnecessary duplication" would be one of the key issues, the senior defense official said. But the department has decided to also consider unmanned aerial vehicles, and the broader related area of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions; intratheater airlift; cybersecurity; irregular warfare; internal Pentagon organization and governance practices, and the complex subject of interagency cooperation in national security issues.
Control of UAV procurement and operations has been the subject of heated debate between the Air Force, which has demanded the role of executive agent for the flying drones, and the three other services, which also buy and fly UAVs. The Air Force also has fought the Army over the intratheater airlift issue, most recently in the Joint Cargo Aircraft program.
The Pentagon is required to report the results of its review with the fiscal 2010 Defense budget submission in February. But the officials said the goal was to finish the work by November so the senior civilian officials, who will depart with the Bush administration in January, can work with the next president's Pentagon transition team members after the Nov. 4 national elections.