By Geoff Fein
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he is worried about seeing a drop in the overall defense budget levels and believes the country needs to debate whether those levels should be increased.
Additionally, Adm. Mike Mullen is concerned about efforts to reset, recapitalize and modernize the forces. He would like to see the defense supplemental bill put into the baseline budget as soon as is possible.
“I worry a great deal about coming down significantly from the overall budget levels we are [at] now. I use four percent as the floor. I am convinced that that floor is about right,” Mullen told a small group of reporters on his plane traveling to Washington after attending the christening of the Navy’s newest destroyer, the USS George Dewey (DDG-105), at Northrop Grumman [NOC] Ship Systems’ Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.
Whether the overall budget levels should be increased should be a subject that is discussed and debated across the country, Mullen added.
“We ought to have that debate in the country. We ought to have it so we understand what we are procuring…what we need for defense, how we support our people, which is the most critical aspect of our business…our cost of people continues to rise,” he added. “That is the discussion we ought to have. It’s vital and it’s timely because of the dangers we face.”
During his time as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Mullen, as well as Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen and Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway, toured the country holding discussions with the public on what kind of Navy the nation needs. The responses they received were woven into the Navy’s new maritime strategy. CNO Adm. Gary Roughead is continuing those conversations with America.
As chairman, Mullen said it has been one of his goals to hold similar discussions around the country.
“For our military to be connected to all of the American people is really critical. I think there is great strength in that,” he said. “I learned a great lesson about that in the development of the maritime strategy and I would argue we need to continue to do that across all of the services and across every state in America.”
It’s Mullen’s view that the supplemental needs to be dramatically reduced and rolled into the baseline budget “as rapidly as we can.”
“They have taken on in many ways a life of their own,” he said.
The supplementals for the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have come at a very critical time, Mullen noted, “but I think over time we need to get them into the baseline budget.”
“It is a combination of what is in the baseline budget now and the supplemental which takes me to right around four percent, or a little bit more, of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). That’s what I think is about right for the floor,” Mullen said. “I am on the side of putting the supplemental into the baseline budget as rapidly as possible, but I would like to do that in a smooth fashion as opposed to dropping it in over night which I think would be very difficult for everyone.”
Since becoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last fall, Mullen has talked about several priorities including: resetting, revitalizing and reconstituting the armed forces, in particular the ground forces.
“We have a lot of gear in theater; [we are] using it at a very high rate. Estimates are in some cases six to seven times faster than normal,” he explained. “I have known just from my previous experience in the Navy some equipment is being used up to 10 to 14 times…[the] Seabees very specifically.”
All that equipment is going to have to be refurbished and replaced, Mullen noted. “So I am very concerned about that. And Congress has been very good about giving us the money to do that. I am also concerned about the modernization of all our services as well as the recapitalization of our services.”
The Air Force, for example, has suffered from its inability to get rid of its old airplanes, he added. “[They are] constrained in many cases by laws which will not allow them to do that, they haven’t been able to invest as much as they would in the new capabilities that they want for the future.”
Additionally, Mullen said he is concerned with the Air Force’s need to ground more than 150 F-15s last year and the Navy’s need last year to ground 39 P-3C Orions.
“We are going to have to recapitalize those, and those are indicative of the kinds of things we have to do for the future,” he said.
As CNO, Mullen said he worked to create an environment in which the Navy was much more efficient and effective in terms of investing its resources. “We were able to take much of those efficiencies and put them into recapitalization. I think the Department is going to have to do more of that. The Army is going to have to do more of that, the Air Force is going to have to do more of that, and the Marine Corps is going to have to do the same thing.”