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Secretary Hagel, while not touting it, has wisely channeled the cuts he proposes towards the civilian sector that serves the military, via the mile deep layer of consultants and advisors we all know haunt the halls of the Pentagon.

Starting with his own office, he is proposing to take a knife to the budgets that support headquarter operations in the Secretary of Defense’s Office as well as that of the Joint Chiefs and their civilian support staff. On a lesser level, he is proposing that the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps follow suit by cutting a smaller amount, but still a decent level, of the civilian advisors the combatant commands look to for support.

By doing so it appears he is hoping to bring the U.S. military back to pre-9/11 levels of spending, with most of the operational, in-service personnel being retained while outside contractors are forced to slim down and find ways to get the job done either more efficiently or, at a minimum, at less cost to the American taxpayer.

We applaud him on this.

To assure that he reaches his goal, Secretary Hagel has told all that will listen that the cuts that are needed will come across the top, in headquarters staff, and only with great reluctance on the ground where boots march in formation headed toward war.

As proof of his commitment to take the fat out of the upper levels of the military, a Pentagon spokesman said that Secretary Hagel’s budget reductions to his own office would amount to nearly $2 billion in savings between 2015 and 2019. On a comparative basis, this would account for fully 5.5% of the $37 billion in cuts made this year alone, if it were applied as such.

Rumpled or not, Secretary Hagel seems to understand fully that at the end of every war there is a slimming of the military. It’s going to happen, so he might as well get on board and get it done right.

With the dedicated way he seems to be going about making decisions as to where to cut, how much, and how, it appears that we may have not only a knowledgeable champion on our side in this exercise, but someone who has taken an earnest interest in keeping the pain for the operational services to an absolute minimum.

We will keep our eyes on Secretary of Defense Hagel’s budget management efforts and let you know if he begins to become wobbly. From our perspective today however, we doubt it will happen. It just may be that the U.S. military has the best of the best in place as it heads into the coming lean, dry, years of financial wilderness.

 

         

 

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