CSBA News

CSBA Previews 2010 Defense Budget

On February 12, 2009, CSBA hosted the first of two briefings about the 2010 defense budget. The briefing came in advance of an expected release of topline budget figures for FY 2010 and featured Stan Collender of Quorvis Communications and the Center’s President Dr. Krepinevich.

Stan Collender provided an overview of the federal budget situation for 2010, including congressional politics and calendar, and historical context. Collender suggested that deficit reduction is the opposite of what needs to be done in the current economic reality. Therefore, substantial defense budget cuts cannot be foreseen in this environment, he concluded.

Dr. Andrew Krepinevich offered a strategic perspective and addressed programmatic pressures that will affect the FY 2010 defense budget request, as well as suggestions on ways to alleviate those pressures. The financial and economic trends are bound to affect fundamental changes in power relations between regions and states, according to Krepinevich.

(audio record)

Think Tank Warns Against Deferring LRSS Programs

On February 3, 2009, The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments today released new report on The Case for Long-Range Strike: 21st Century Scenarios by Senior Fellow Barry D. Watts.

The report examines the needs, specifications, rationales and urgency for land-based, penetrating, long-range strike system (LRSS) in light of the security environment confronting the United States in the early twenty-first century.

The analysis suggests that it is unwise to defer fielding a new LRSS until the late 2030s or beyond, as earlier Air Force plans proposed. Watts argues for moving forward as rapidly as possible to field follow-on to the B-2 for long-range strike is based on examining a range of “generic scenarios.” While most of the scenarios are conventional, Watts believes that nuclear scenarios merit consideration and strengthen the case. (download report)

New Study Tracks War Costs, Funding Mechanisms

On December 15, 2008, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments released a new report Cost of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Other Military Operations Through 2008 and Beyond.

In this report, Steven Kosiak, Vice President for Budget Studies at CSBA offers a comprehensive picture of the direct budgetary costs of US military operations conducted since 2001. The report also discusses the means used to budget for and finance these operations, and includes projections of how much more these operations might cost over the coming decade. (dowload report)

Think Tank Weighs in on the Next QDR

On November 17, 2008, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments released three reports in its Strategy for the Long Haul research and education program designed to support the Pentagon’s upcoming strategic review:

• An Army at the Crossroads, by Andrew Krepinevich (see presentation slides) (audio record)

• The US Marine Corps: Fleet Marine Forces for the 21st 

  Century, by Dakota Wood (see presentation slides) 

(audio record)

• US Special Operations Forces: Challenges and

  Opportunities, by Robert Martinage

  (see presentation slides)(audio record)

The reports were released at the US Military Services and the Strategy for the Long Haul half-day conference at the Capitol Hilton in Washington, DC. The conference was attended by over 100 military experts from Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the defense industry, and the media.

In his opening remarks, CSBA Board Chair Dave McCurdy, noted the exceptional timeliness of the studies. He also observed that these studies assess the forces most heavily engaged in operations against Islamic extremist elements and, consequently, will likely be accorded high priority in the incoming Obama Administration’s defense posture review.

Among the studies’ recommendations are those calling for the new administration to strongly consider:

• Creating a “Dual-Surge” Army that better reflects that Service’s commitment to field a force that is truly “full-spectrum capable,” while undertaking a thorough review of the Army’s troubled Future Combat System; and terminating efforts to increase the size of the Active and Reserve Components by over 70,000 soldiers.

• Conducting a thorough review of the Marine Corps’ current operational doctrine, planned acquisition of equipment, and organizational construct in light of the rapidly changing conflict environment, while terminating the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program and truncating the MV-22 buy.

• Creating a better balance institutionally between direct and indirect approaches to special operations; overcoming the poor alignment between the current regional orientation of Special Operations Forces (SOF) and anticipated operational demand; expanding and recapitalizing fixed- and rotary-wing SOF aviation; and fielding a stealthy transport and expanding clandestine undersea infiltration and exfiltration capacity.

The Strategy for the Long Haul series reports on the Air Force, Navy and Strategic Nuclear Forces will be released in January 2009. Other upcoming reports in this series of sixteen comprehensive publications will address Restructuring the US Alliance Portfolio and Organizing for National Security. CSBA’s final report, a comprehensive defense Strategy for the Long Haul, will draw upon the insights and findings of the fifteen preceding reports.

CSBA Zooms In on Manpower and Defense Industrial Base

At the press briefing on October 15, 2008 the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments today released two new Strategy for the Long Haul Initiative reports:

• Military Manpower for the Long Haul by CSBA’s Vice President for Budget Studies Steven Kosiak. This report discusses the requirements and challenges confronting military manpower in coming years. It considers a range of proposals for improving recruitment and retention efforts, including both relatively narrow traditional options and new, broader approaches.

Kosiak believes the United States must continue to make use of traditional tools like enlistment bonuses, but that it should also consider significantly reforming the military’s personnel management and compensation systems. “Among other things, we need to allow for greater flexibility in the length of assignments and careers in the military, as well as compensation levels for different specialties,” Kosiak noted at the briefing.

• The US Defense Industrial Base: Past, Present and Future by CSBA’s Senior Fellow Barry Watts. The report reviews the industry’s performance since World War II; considers the role of the federal government in facilitating a more efficient and effective structure; and raises the question of what may need to be done to ensure that the industrial base can meet the requirements of the US military Services in coming decades.

Watts concluded that the US defense industrial base has been an important source of competitive advantage for the United States since the 1950s. Notwithstanding well known and nagging problems with cost and schedule in individual acquisition programs, it has produced world-class military systems and weapons. However, the federal government has generally taken a “hands off” approach to managing the industrial base. During the briefing, therefore, Watts stressed the need for Congress and the Pentagon to converge on a long-term, comprehensive approach to ensuring that the industry continues to be a source of strategic advantage in the future.

CSBA News Archives

Latest from CSBA

April 30: CSBA President Andrew Krepinevich will testify before the full Senate Armed Services Committee in an open hearing on the Secretary of Defense’s 2010 budget recommendations at 9:30 a.m. in Room SH-216, Hart Senate Office Building (hearing details)

April 30: CSBA Senior Fellow Barry Watts will testify before the Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland in an open hearing on the Current and Future Roles, Missions, and Capabilities of U.S. Military Air Power at 2:00 p.m. in Room SR-222, Russell Senate Office Building (hearing details)

April 30: Senior Fellow Martin Murphy will testify before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in an open public hearing on Confronting Piracy Off the Coast of Somalia at 2:30 p.m. in Room 419, Dirksen Senate Office Building (read Martin’s backgrounder on Piracy)

April 22, 2009: CSBA hosted a live internet briefing with Andrew Krepinevich and Evan Montgomery to release our new report Nuclear Terrorism: Assessing the Threat, Developing Response by CSBA's Fellow Evan Montgomery (recorded event) (report)

April 17, 2009: CSBA releases Somali Piracy: Not Just a Naval Problem backgrounder by Senior Fellow Martin Murphy (backgrounder)

April 10, 2009: Recently, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has announced substantial changes to the defense program. We've come up with CSBA's comparison of Strategy for the Long Haul recommendations with the decisions made by Secretary Gates. (table)

April 9, 2009: The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments is pleased to announce the addition of Jim Thomas and Todd Harrison to its expert team. Jim Thomas joins CSBA as Vice President for Studies, and will direct the organization’s strategic studies and defense spending research and programs. Todd Harrison will lead the budget program as Fellow for Defense Budget Studies. (press release)

April 6, 2009: CSBA concludes that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ programmatic decisions today generally align with the strategic direction laid down in the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and confirmed in the 2008 National Defense Strategy. While the Department has articulated a new strategic approach in recent years, it postponed many hard decisions necessary to harmonize the defense program with that strategy. Secretary Gates’ announcements represent an important step toward better aligning the Department’s program with its strategy. (press release)

March 26, 2009: CSBA President Andrew Krepinevich testified on the current and future roles, missions, and capabilities of U.S. military land power before the Subcommittee on Airland of the Senate Armed Services Committee. (hearing information) (prepared testimony text)(video)

March 19, 2009: CSBA President Andrew Krepinevich testified before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on the Project on National Security Reform (prepared testimony text)(hearing information)(video)

March 13, 2009: The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments announces the release of Small Boats, Weak States, Dirty Money: Piracy and Maritime Terrorism, a new book written by the Center’s Senior Fellow Dr. Martin Murphy. (press release)

March 3, 2009: CSBA Senior Fellow Robert Martinage testified before the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee on Special Operations Forces: Challenges and Opportunities. (prepared testimony text) (hearing transcript) (hearing details)

February 17, 2009: CSBA released a new report The US Navy: Charting a Course for Tomorrow’s Fleet by Vice President of Strategic Studies Robert Work at a briefing on Capitol Hill (download report)(download presentation slides).

February 3, 2009: CSBA hosted press briefing on the newly published report The Case for Long-Range Strike: 21st Century Scenarios by CSBA’s Senior Fellow Barry Watts. (download report)

October 22, 2008: CSBA releases "FY2009 Defense Appropriations Act " backgrounder by Steven Kosiak (download backgrounder)

September 17, 2008: CSBA releases "Comparison of the FY 2009 Senate and House Defense Authorization Bills" backgrounder by Steven Kosiak (download backgrounder)

September 9, 2008: CSBA offers its "Analysis of Proposals to Allocate Four Percent of GDP to Defense" backgrounder by Steven Kosiak (download backgrounder)

September 4, 2008: Tom Ehrhard considers the issue of Integrating Disruptive Technologies in the Department of Defense(download presentation slides)

August 21, 2008: CSBA launches the Strategy for the Long Haul initiative with a release of four new reports. (more) (media coverage)

July 9, 2008: Dr. Andrew Krepinevich testified before the House Armed Subcommittee on Services Oversight and Investigations on Defense Language and Cultural Awareness Transformation (hearing information)(read testimony)(audio)

June 18, 2008: CSBA releases "Classified Funding in the FY 2009 Defense Budget Request" update by Steven Kosiak (download update )

June 18, 2008: CSBA releases "Range, Persistence, Stealth, and Networking: The Case for a Carr ier-Based Unmanned Combat Air System" co-authored by Robert Work and Tom Ehrhard (download report)

May 6, 2008: CSBA hosted a congressional briefing "Dissuasion Strategy vis-à-vis China." The briefing was timed to the release of a new CSBA report Dissuasion Strategy, coauthored by Andrew F. Krepinevich and Robert C. Martinage. (press release) (report)

April 21, 2008: CSBA releases "Analysis of the FY 2009 Defense Budget Request" report by Steven Kosiak, Vice President, Budget Studies. (download report )

Events Archives