Inside Defense
Aug. 4, 2009 -- The Defense Department last week established 18 new teams to scrub everything from weapon-system investment plans to the U.S. military's vision for positioning forces around the world, beginning in earnest a critique of the military services' five-year spending proposal that usually commences in September, according to Pentagon officials.
These assessments mark the start of the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s annual review of the services’ budget proposals and accompanying five-year investment plans.
While technically not part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, the newly formed issue teams hold potential to significantly recalibrate the Pentagon's entire investment plan and are viewed by many in the Defense Department as a de facto arm of the QDR process.
“If you're one of the services, you're damn right this is part of the QDR,” said one Pentagon official.
The establishment of the previously unreported teams marks an important turning point in the QDR, which includes a review of strategy, budget, force structure and weapon-system spending plans.
Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrapped up what Pentagon officials are referring to as the first phase of the QDR, issuing classified guidance requiring the military services to adjust their FY-11 to FY-15 spending plans to fund $60 billion worth of new capabilities required to bolster U.S. military capabilities at the low and high end of the conflict spectrum.
That guidance distilled the work of five issue teams spearheading the quadrennial review, led by the Pentagon's policy shop, which have worked since early this year to identify capability caps in the military's ability to conduct irregular operations and confront high-end, asymmetric military threats.
Now, the teams leading the QDR are largely done making recommendations about specific weapon system programs and capabilities the military services should add to their arsenals, according to military officials involved in the review. During the next phase of the QDR, the Pentagon's policy shop and the Joint Staff will focus on major policy and authority matters, including the high-stakes issues of finalizing a new force-planning construct, these officials add.
The heavy lifting during the program and budget review is done by two DOD offices: The Pentagon's cost assessment and program evaluation (CA&PE) shop, formerly called the program analysis and evaluation directorate, which will critique the five-year investment plans; and the Pentagon comptroller’s office, which will grade the FY-11 budget proposals. During these reviews, these two offices will be examining whether the service spending plans fulfill Gates’ guidance for the development of the force (GDF).
The 18 newly formed issue teams, according to Pentagon officials, cover manpower; homeland defense; communications; cyber operations; the Defense Health Program; global posture; ground forces; mobility; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance/battlespace awareness; irregular warfare; missile defense; the Nuclear Posture Review; shipbuilding; tactical aircraft; joint command and control; business information technology; major defense acquisition programs; and reset.
The teams are beginning the early work on critiquing the services’ FY-11 to FY-15 investment plans, which are due to be formally submitted to the Office of the Secretary of Defense for review on Aug. 14.
Service brass are scheduled during the last weeks of August to brief Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn -- and a high-level advisory group he chairs -- on how each service's proposed investment plan complies with Gates' recent guidance, which requires each to pay for billions of dollars in new programs out of hide (DefenseAlert, July 28).
The program-review portion of the QDR is expected to continue until November, when the Defense Department gets a clearer sense from the White House of exactly how much the Obama administration intends to propose the Pentagon spend in FY-11 and beyond.
In October, the Office of the Secretary of Defense plans to begin drafting the narrative portion of the QDR, which is expected to be finalized in January and transmitted to Congress in February with the FY-11 budget request, sources said. -- Jason Sherman
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