Cohen Selph

S Crist
4/14/15
English 4

Since the beginning of the 20th century the United States military has grown to be an
unprecedented force in the world. The proposal of a new direction for the military to take
threatens that status. This proposal would drop the percentage of US GPD spent on military
spending to 2.3% by 2024 which would be the lowest it has been since 1940. This will force
many branches of the military out of their comfort zone to meet the demands of sequestration.
Sequestration, if allowed to go into effect, would alter virtually every aspect of DoDs
(Department of Defense) Planning. It would force a uniform reduction in budget authority of
roughly 10.3 percent across all accounts other than military personnel (Harrison).The cuts in
defense spending will affect the nations readiness and its ability to protect the nations interest.
The army will be the hardest hit from these sort of military budget cuts. The army has
already shrunk from its wartime high of 570,000 active- duty soldiers down to 520,000(boot).
This has already effected the army in the ways it distributes its man power. This has caused
ample amounts of stress on the chain of command in the army on ways to even out the troops.
The Army will have to be cut to 440,000 to 450,000 active-duty soldiers (Boot). That is in the
case that these cuts are ended but if they are not the army will have to shrink to a man power of
only 420,000 troops which is the smallest it has been since 1940. Considering the population of
the United States was 200 million less during 1940 than the present is seems quite
unproportioned.

The Marines, one of the United States most elite fighting forces, will not face as many
budget cuts but this only is because of the size difference between the branches. The Navy /
Marine Corps receive smaller cuts at -5.8 percent and -4.3 percent respectively (Harrison). The
Marine Corps will fall from todays level of 190,000 (already down from a wartime high of
200,000), reaching an end-strength of 182,000 if sequestration is repealed and 175,000 if it isnt.
(Boot). This would dampen the Marine Corps capability to complement the army in future
endeavors. The Navy the sister service of the Marine Corps will be facing major cuts in
sequestration, which will even further inhibit marine capabilities. . Current plans call for a slight
increase in Navy size, for a total of 309 ships in 2019, but unless sequestration is repealed, this
will be impossible to achieve. More likely the Navy will shrink down to 250 to 270 ships. (Boot)
This will stress the United States on their ability to provide coverage of the worlds oceans.
The Air force is in for tough times also in the foreseeable future. It will be forced to retire
its entire eet of A-10 Wart- hogs, the best ground-attack aircraft in the inventory and one that
has saved countless lives among soldiers and Marines in combat over the decades (Boot). The air
force are receiving the least amount of cuts of any branch due to the turn to more of an air and
sea strategy. This strategy calls for a reduction in the ground fighting force of all the branches.
The reductions in the military will seriously affect the nations readiness as a whole and
our ability to protect our interests. Each branch has been affected by the requirements of
sequestration. Whether it be the army having to cut its troops a significant figure or the navy
having to cut several ship to meet cost demands. The safety of our troops have been threatened
with the retirement of the warthog that has saved countless American lives and is a force in
ground fighting tactics. This system need to be further reviewed and dramatically changed to
keep our current status as the worlds most powerful nation.

Work Cited
Harrison, Todd. "ANALYSIS OF THE FY 2013 DEFENSE BUDGET AND
SEQUESTRATION."Http://www.csbaonline.org. 1 Aug. 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.csbaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Analysis-of-the-FY-2013Defese-Budget.pdf>.
Boot, Max. "Obama's Defense-Spending Crisis: We Are In Danger Of Crippling The
American Military." Commentary 5 (2014): 26. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Mar. 2015