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 WASHINGTON,
Jan. 10, 2012 – People are the centerpiece of the new defense
strategy guidance that President Barack Obama released last week,
the deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans and forces
said here yesterday.
Kathleen Hicks told the Pentagon Channel
that the new guidance calls for a military force sized to handle the
operational environment in the world today, and that the force will
not be like that of the past 10 years.
Rather, she said, the
strategy guidance says the country is best served through having
forward-deployed military forces present abroad.
While
technology is an incredible enabler, “what we understand today is
that nothing substitutes for the quality of our trained, equipped
and ready force, and that's our focus for the future,” she said.
The strategy guidance uses information gleaned from the 2010
Quadrennial Defense Review, Hicks said, but the situation in two
short years has changed. “Now we have a changed fiscal environment,
the Arab Awakening, the end of U.S. operations in Iraq, and [we are]
looking forward transition in Afghanistan,” she said. Changes in
Iranian behavior and other factors also were considered in the new
guidance, she added.
The Budget Control Act signed last year
calls for the Defense Department to cut $487 billion over 10 years.
But even without this impetus, DOD would be incorporating the
lessons learned from 10 years of war, she said.
The strategy
guidance has some concrete changes to past strategy, Hicks said. “We
have been looking toward Asia more and maintaining our presence in
the Middle East, but now we have to bring new focus to those primary
emphases to ensuring we have the right mix of capabilities for our
special operators all the way up to the high ends of warfare,” she
explained. The emphasis, she added, is particularly in the air,
naval, cyber and space domains.
But people remain the bedrock
capability, Hicks said. The message from DOD to service members is
“we are looking out for you, we are making sure that any drawdown
that does occur comes with appropriate transition incentives and
capabilities that we can help people transition to civilian life,”
she added.
For service members who opt to stay in the
military, department leaders will make sure they have the pay and
benefits they deserve, and that family programs will remain in
place, she said.
The country will continue to need a strong
and capable National Guard and reserve components, Hicks said. But
there are constraints there as well.
“We will have to draw
down somewhat, but those who remain will be well taken care of,” she
said. “What we can really offer now that we haven't been able to do
for some time is a more sustainable tempo.” This means employers of
reserve-component service members will be able to plan for military
absences.
The president worked very closely with DOD leaders,
including the combatant commanders, to understand all the nuances of
a new defense strategy, Hicks said. She called it a very
collaborative and inclusive process.
In the field, there will
be a growing focus on building partnership capacity in Asia, as well
as more exercises and more opportunity to get high-end training. “We
will still maintain [counterinsurgency] skill sets that are so
vital, but we will begin to have time and opportunity to train on a
much broader range of potential threats,” she said.
The
biggest risk of any strategy is uncertainty of the future, she said.
“We don't know exactly where threats will emerge,” she acknowledged.
“We don't know where opportunities will emerge and whether we will
be able to see them in time to take advantage of them. We really
have tried to develop a balanced force that can take account of that
uncertainty and be ready to flex to different types of crises that
may emerge.
“We think we have brought down risk that we had
at the highest levels of conflict,” she continued, “by investing in
our power-projection capabilities.”
The strategy guidance
does pose a risk in the case of large-scale, enduring operations
like the military has been doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hicks
said. “We believe we've addressed that risk by building in
reversibility to the strategy,” she added.
Defense Department
officials are concerned about several trends, including a continuing
concern that terrorism still is a problem, Hicks said. Officials
also worry about Iran's path and the country's push for a nuclear
capability. “There is opportunity in the Arab Awakening, but there
is also tremendous uncertainty,” she said. “North Korea remains a
challenge for the United States and its allies in Asia.”
The
strategy guidance makes sense if the cuts outlined in the Budget
Control Act remain in force, Hicks said. But all bets are off, she
added, if a “sequestration” mechanism in the law comes into play,
doubling the projected defense budget cuts. The law calls for
sequestration to kick in unless Congress acts before January 2013 to
override that provision.
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2012
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