Washington D.C. – Politico and Fox News joined numerous news organizations in highlighting a memo distributed to House Armed Services Committee Republicans that outlines the precarious state of our military, should the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction fail in its mission and trigger sequestration or other deep defense cuts.
“The analysis, distributed Friday as part of panel Chairman Buck McKeon’s efforts to lobby against deeper defense cuts by the deficit-reduction supercommittee, paints a dire picture of a ‘hollow force’ unable to meet national security needs and forced to return to a draft to fill its ranks,” Politico’s Charles Hoskinson said.
“The analysis notes that the Navy would need to take two aircraft carrier battle groups out of service, and the Air Force would lose a third of its fighters. The Marine Corps would no longer be able to maintain forward-deployed amphibious forces around the world. New weapons systems, such as the Navy and Marine Corps’ versions of F-35 joint strike fighter, would be canceled. The U.S. nuclear arsenal would be drastically reduced and modernization plans scrapped.”
“Aside from the troop cuts, there would also be massive layoffs of Pentagon civilian employees, and the elimination of many jobs in the defense industry, according to the analysis,” Hoskinson concluded.
Fox News also profiled the memo and the potential ramifications of deep cuts to not only our military, but to the civilian defense workforce and the unemployment rate for new veterans created if the cuts required by sequestration were enacted.