Washington DC [US], February 20 : Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has instructed top Pentagon and US military officials to prepare plans to reduce the defence budget by 8 per cent annually over the next five years, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post.
This proposal, which is expected to encounter significant opposition within the military and Congress, would also involve substantial budget cuts.
Hegseth's directive requires the proposed reductions to be submitted by February 24. The memo outlines 17 categories that the Trump administration wants to exclude from the cuts, including operations at the US-Mexico border, the modernisation of nuclear weapons and missile defence, and the purchase of one-way attack drones and other munitions.
The Pentagon's 2025 budget is approximately USD 850 billion, with widespread agreement in Congress that this level of spending is crucial to counter the growing threats from China and Russia. If fully implemented, the proposed cuts could total tens of billions of dollars each year over the next five years.
The memo calls for continued "support agency" funding for several major regional headquarters, including Indo-Pacific Command, Northern Command and Space Command. Notably absent from that list is European Command, which has had a leading role in executing US strategy during the war in Ukraine; Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East; and Africa Command, which manages the several thousand troops the Pentagon has spread across that continent, The Washington Post reported
"President Trump's charge to DoD is clear: achieve Peace through Strength," Hegseth wrote in the memo, dated Tuesday. "The time for preparation is over we must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence. Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defence spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit."
If implemented, the proposed cuts would represent the most significant attempt to reduce Pentagon spending since 2013.
At that time, these cuts were seen as a crisis within the Pentagon and became increasingly unpopular among both Republicans and Democrats as the negative impact on the military's training and readiness for combat became evident.
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