Pentagon begins planning for massive budget cuts

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has begun planning for the roughly $500 billion in personnel and program cuts over a decade that will be needed if Congress and the White House fail to reach a deal that would avoid the double hit of tax hikes and spending cuts dubbed the “fiscal cliff.”

Department spokesman George Little said the cuts would be “devastating to our national defense.”

As the White House and members of Congress continue to wrangle over how best to find as much as $1.2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years to avert the fiscal cliff, Little said the Pentagon started more detailed discussions this week on how to slash 9.4 percent of its budget across the board.

He said cuts that deep could force the department to throw out its new military strategy, and cut weapons and technology programs, and it could hamper the department’s ability to provide for its troops and their families.

The department also is beginning to figure out how it will prepare and inform about 3 million military, civilian and contract workers about the cuts, if they occur.

For months, Pentagon officials have insisted they were not planning for the massive budget cuts that would automatically kick in after the first of the year if the White House and Congress doesn’t strike a deal. But with less than a month to go and no deal in sight, those evaluations have begun in earnest.

According to guidance sent out by the White House Office of Manage- ment and Budget, the Pentagon will have to slice nearly 10 percent off more than 80 accounts, including more than $4 billion off Air Force aircraft and maintenance, $2.1 billion off Navy shipbuilding; and $6.7 billion off Army operations.

If the White House and lawmakers are able to avoid the fiscal cliff, the military still likely will be looking at as much as an additional $10 billion to $15 billion in cuts in projected defense spending each year for the next decade. It’s a prospect that Republicans recognize is the new reality, with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ending and deficits demanding deep cuts.