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| July 12, 2001 |
| July 12, 2001 |
Administration Releases Details of Pentagon Spending Request
Christopher Hellman, Senior Analyst, chellman@cdi.org
This week the Pentagon released details of its fiscal year 2002 "budget amendment" which is intended to replace the "placeholder" budget released by the Defense Department as part of the Administration's March budget request. The new budget includes $18.4 billion in additional Pentagon spending for fiscal year 2002, on top of the $14.2 billion increase over fiscal year 2001 spending which was included in the March budget. All told, the Administration is seeking $32.6 billion in new Pentagon spending, 10.5% above this year's level (closer to 7%, when adjusted for inflation, according to DoD sources.)
The Bush Administration has stated repeatedly its intention to fund weapons modernization and develop "leap ahead" technologies in part through the termination of some current programs. But as many analysts expected, most major weapons systems received funding at or above current levels. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that the tough decisions on specific weapons will not occur until the FY'03 budget cycle, after a number of reviews currently under way at the Pentagon have been completed.
One area which received significant additional funding was missile defense. In all, the Pentagon plans to spend $8.3 billion on missile defense, an increase of $3 billion (57%). In addition, the Ballistic Missile Defense Office (BMDO) has been restructured. Funds are now allocated in general categories, rather than to specific programs. The three major categories will focus on developing technologies related to Boost Phase, Midcourse and Terminal segments of an incoming missile's flight. Effectively, budgetary line items within BMDO have been eliminated. Without such details it will be extremely difficult, if not entirely impossible, for independent assessments of how much money is being spent on programs.
The Administration is also announced plans to retire 33 of its 93 B-1 bombers, which would be removed from three of the Air Force's five bases that currently house the B-1 fleet. According to Under Secretary of Defense Dov Zakheim, the move would save $165 million, which would be used to upgrade the remaining 60 B-1s. This proposal instantly drew fire from members of Congress whose states are home to the three bases losing B-1s (Georgia, Idaho and Kansas). In response to these criticisms, Air Force Secretary James Roche recommended delaying implementation of the plan by a year. Further, the Senate has included as part of the FY'01 supplemental spending legislation currently before Congress an amendment by Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) to temporarily block the retirement plan.
Still missing are details about the Pentagon's long-term spending plan. The Defense Department traditionally supplies spending projections covering five or six years, known as the Future Years Defense Program, or "FYDP." Congress considers such projections critical to its work, as spending decisions made in the next fiscal year can influence budgets over a number of years.
Meanwhile, according to InsideDefense.com the services last week delivered to Congress their lists of unfunded priorities for FY'02. Commonly referred to as "wish lists" they include items that the services would like to fund if additional resources are available. The service's wish lists for FY'02 reportedly total a further $32.4 billion above the current $32.6 billion already under consideration.
For further details of the FY'02 spending plan, see CDI factsheets "FY'02 Requests for Selected Weapons Systems," "FY'02 Requests for Ballistic Missile Defense," and "New DoD Budget: Long on Dollars, Short on Details," Weekly Defense Monitor, June 28, 2001.
Small Arms Impact Children Around the World
Rachel Stohl, Senior Analyst, rstohl@cdi.org
The United Nations is currently hosting the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade of Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects. While governments negotiate a final document, the Conference Programme of Action, non-governmental organizations are working to ensure that the victims of small arms proliferation and misuse are not forgotten.
To that end, the Conference served as the venue for the launch of the Biting the Bullet (a joint project of the NGOs BASIC, International Alert, and Saferworld) report, "Putting Children First: Building a Framework for International Action to Address the Impact of Small Arms." The report found that the use of small arms by and against children has direct impacts -- death and injury, human rights violations, psychosocial trauma, and refugees and internal displacement -- as well as indirect effects -- devastation to the family and community, reduced or loss of access to primary health care, education, humanitarian assistance, food security, economic activities, and creation of a culture of violence. The use of children as soldiers is also an unfortunate reality of the reliance on small arms in conflict. It is often difficult to separate the impact of conflict from the impact of small arms, but the human suffering caused by small arms and light weapons is ultimately immeasurable.
The report also highlights the reliance on children to wage war that has become a symptom of the massive proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons. Children as young as 7 or 8 are sometimes given a weapon, and if they are strong enough to hold it, they are taken for military training. Without small arms, children are often not as useful to armed groups. Children may still be used for domestic chores around a camp, but generally not as combatants. The reliance on small arms often blurs the distinction between adult and child soldiers. However, the report also notes that while small arms may make the use of children more feasible, the relationship is not causal. Small arms proliferation does not serve as an indicator for the use of child soldiers as children are also used as soldiers in areas where arms are in short supply.
The report stresses that small arms proliferation and misuse create a complex set of issues requiring multi-layered solutions. But while there is an increased level of dialogue on the issues of small arms and children, the implementation of remedial ideas has been lacking. Reducing the negative impact of small arms on children, therefore, will require a great deal of co-ordination at the national, regional and international level and cooperation at all levels with and amongst non-governmental organizations. A framework for action is key to implementing policies that cut across the UN system, encompass UN agencies, and include NGOs and governments. But implementation of existing policies is not enough. Increased action is needed at the policy formulation level and at the stage of program implementation.
In particular, measures that control the trade in small arms, address the use of child soldiers, reflect the needs of girls and other gender dimensions of the issue, develop specific protections for children and adolescents, improve education and awareness-building, implement demobilization and reintegration, and encourage future action and research are essential to comprehensively address the effects of small arms on children. The report stresses that the UN Conference on Small Arms and the Special Session on Children in September can move international action forward to stem the devastating impact of small arms on children.
Pentagon Plans NMD Test -- The Pentagon is planning a fourth test of its ground-based National Missile Defense (NMD) system on July 14. The test will be the first since last July's failed attempt to shoot down a long-range missile with a hit-to-kill warhead. The test will virtually mirror last year's test, although this time the Pentagon is downplaying the importance of the test, saying it will move forward with missile defense plans regardless of the outcome. Only one of the previous three tests has been successful, and NMD critics argued that even that test was flawed. Meanwhile, according to widespread media reports, the State Department has notified all U.S. diplomatic posts abroad that tests of a missile defense system will come into conflict with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty "in months, not years."
Air Force Will Not Attempt to Retrieve Lost Nuke -- The U.S. Air Force said Wednesday it is giving up any effort to recover an unarmed nuclear bomb jettisoned off the Atlantic coast near Savannah, Georgia, in February 1958, after the B-47 bomber carrying the device was involved in a mid-air collision with a fighter aircraft during a training mission. An Air Force statement said simply, "The bomb will remain categorized as irretrievably lost." The Air Force said the 7,600-pound bomb lacked a key plutonium capsule needed to cause a nuclear explosion, although it contained radioactive uranium and 400 pounds of "conventional explosive." Officials estimate that the bomb is five miles off the coast and lies in 8 to 40 feet of water under 5 to 15 feet of sand and silt. The U.S. Navy, the Department of Energy, and the Savannah District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers all agree the cost and risk associated with resuming the search for the bomb outweigh the potential benefit, according to the Air Force.
U.S. Won't Pay China $1 Million for Spy Plane Costs -- According to State department officials, the United States has no intention of paying a $1 million bill submitted by the Chinese government for compensation resulting from the three months that a Navy P-3 reconnaissance plane spent on Chinese soil. According to the State Department, the bill came in the form of a several page fax, and was itemized. The statement came one day after Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley told members of the media that the United States would be willing to pay any reasonable expenses related to the support of the aircraft.
Quotation of the Week -- "In a shameless subordination of diplomacy to domestic political pandering, John R. Bolton, the under secretary of state for arms control and international security, told the [United Nations conference on small arms] that Washington would not support an agreement to curb the international flow of illicit small arms if it infringed on the right of Americans to bear arms," The New York Times editorial, July 11, 2001.
This Week on America's Defense Monitor: "Are We Prepared for Chemical/Biological Attacks?"
Ever since the poison gas attack on the Tokyo subway, our government as been preparing for a similar attack on U.S. soil. Forty federal agencies and billions of dollars are committed to counter sarin gas, anthrax and small pox. Domestic and international terrorism are at the center of this fascinating and informative program.
Airs in Washington, DC on Sunday, July 15 at 10:30 a.m, on Channel 32.
Airs in NYC on Saturday, July 21 at 7:00 a.m. on Channel 13.
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