A Time of Transformation

his spring, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress he wanted to scrap $11 billion in funding for the Army's next-generation howitzer, the Crusader field artillery system, in favor of investing in more advanced weapons. The announcement likely was the first shot in an ongoing battle the Pentagon's civilian leadership will wage to transform the armed services from a bulky Cold War fighting force into a lean and technologically savvy 21st century warfighting machine.

"Those transformation investments cannot be made without terminating some programs and finding other savings," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee in May. He says tough choices remain, despite the administration's push for a $13 billion increase in the military's budget for procurement and research, development, test and evaluation, which totaled $109 billion this year.

The 2003 defense budget is the first to provide a clear blueprint for how the Bush administration would retool the military. Rumsfeld has outlined a series of transformational goals for the armed forces and says they will drive Defense procurement and research spending.

In fiscal 2003, the Pentagon has proposed spending $122.6 billion on military procurement. The money would be divided between purchasing existing weapon systems ($68.7 billion) and developing and testing new ones ($53.9 billion). Rumsfeld says that about 17 percent of the 2003 procurement budget will support efforts to transform the military. Funds earmarked for transformation would increase to nearly a quarter of Defense's acquisition spending over the next five years.

Even before Sept. 11, the Pentagon had declared that homeland security would be one of its top priorities. Much of the $8 billion earmarked in fiscal 2003 to defend U.S. soil will go toward revitalized missile defense programs. These include the Army's Patriot PAC III missile ($623 million), the Air Force's Airborne Tactical Laser ($598 million) and sea-, air- and space-based systems designed to shoot down enemy missiles in their early stages ($797 million).

The administration has proposed to devote $3.2 billion next year to the effort to hunt down America's enemies. Among the funding priorities are $141 million to develop new unmanned aerial vehicles, $629 million to upgrade the Air Force's Global Hawk reconnaissance UAV, and $1 billion to convert four Navy nuclear submarines so that they are capable of carrying more than 150 Tomahawk missiles.

The military will have to be prepared to travel long distances to fight on the battlefields of the 21st century. The Defense Department has proposed spending $7.3 billion in 2003 to upgrade its "power projection" capabilities, including $630 million to expand and upgrade the military's Global Positioning System, $500 million to continue development of the Joint Strike Fighter and $707 million to develop the Army's Future Combat System.

Other transformation priorities include:

• Using advances in information technology to improve joint warfighting capabilities ($2.5 billion in 2003).
• Investing in systems to protect the nation's computers and allow the United States to attack enemy systems ($174 million).
• Improving U.S. military operations in space ($200 million).