New direction for US military

Highlights of the US defence strategy announced on Thursday: Ground forces scaled back The army plans to cut active duty troops from 565,000 to 520,000 after 2014, and many analysts say the number could drop below 500,000. The Marine Corps will be reduced from 202,000 to 186,000 and may be asked to shrink further. The US military has 1.4 million men and women in uniform; China has 2.3 million; North Korea 1.1 million.

Asia Pacific as top priority The US plans to bolster its presence in the Asia Pacific region to ensure “the free flow of commerce”, including in the South China Sea. The emphasis on the Pacific means more investments in naval and air power as well as cyber and space weaponry. The Pentagon wants to parry China’s anti-ship missiles and other arms that could undercut the reach of aircraft carriers. Funds will flow to drones, radar-evading aircraft and electronic jamming programmes.

Nuclear arsenal reduced The Pentagon has not revealed any details of a possible cutback to the atomic arsenal, but legislators have proposed reducing the fleet of 14 nuclear-armed submarines. End of the two-war doctrine The strategy abandons the doctrine of preparing to fight two wars at the same time. Instead, the US would be able to wage a large-scale conflict in one region while conducting a holding action elsewhere.

A defence budget without

equal US defence spending will continue to grow and the Pentagon’s budget will be higher than during the last years of George W Bush’s presidency. Excluding the cost of the war in Afghanistan, the defence budget for fiscal year 2012 is roughly US$530 billion (Dh1.95 trillion), representing about 40 per cent of the world’s military spending. By comparison, China’s defence budget in 2011 was $91.5 billion.