Showing posts with label U.S. TROOPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.S. TROOPS. Show all posts
DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Panetta Outlines U.S. Troop Changes In Europe
DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Panetta Outlines U.S. Troop Changes In Europe
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 17, 2012: Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta met with German Defense Minister Thomas De Maizière at the Pentagon today, as Defense Department officials announced details of planned changes in the U.S. military presence in Europe.
The Army will inactivate its Germany-based 170th and 172nd infantry brigades this year and in fiscal 2014, respectively, officials announced, as part of a change that will cut U.S. service members in Europe from about 80,000 now to about 70,000 in 2017.
"The minister understands the necessity of the shifts we are making as we work to implement our new defense strategy while meeting our fiscal responsibilities," Panetta said during a press briefing with his German counterpart.
The secretary said he and De Maizière had a productive meeting today, as they had earlier this month in both Brussels and Munich where both attended NATO defense meetings and the annual Munich Security Conference.
Panetta thanked De Maizière for his leadership both in NATO deliberations and in his nation's "very steadfast" support to the alliance-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
"Germany has been with us from the very beginning," the secretary said. "The German military plays a very important role as the lead for ISAF Regional Command North."
Germany is both a top troop contributor for ISAF and a top funding contributor for Afghan security force sustainment, he noted.
DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Panetta Outlines U.S. Troop Changes In Europe
DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Panetta Outlines U.S. Troop Changes In Europe
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 17, 2012: Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta met with German Defense Minister Thomas De Maizière at the Pentagon today, as Defense Department officials announced details of planned changes in the U.S. military presence in Europe.
The Army will inactivate its Germany-based 170th and 172nd infantry brigades this year and in fiscal 2014, respectively, officials announced, as part of a change that will cut U.S. service members in Europe from about 80,000 now to about 70,000 in 2017.
"The minister understands the necessity of the shifts we are making as we work to implement our new defense strategy while meeting our fiscal responsibilities," Panetta said during a press briefing with his German counterpart.
The secretary said he and De Maizière had a productive meeting today, as they had earlier this month in both Brussels and Munich where both attended NATO defense meetings and the annual Munich Security Conference.
Panetta thanked De Maizière for his leadership both in NATO deliberations and in his nation's "very steadfast" support to the alliance-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
"Germany has been with us from the very beginning," the secretary said. "The German military plays a very important role as the lead for ISAF Regional Command North."
Germany is both a top troop contributor for ISAF and a top funding contributor for Afghan security force sustainment, he noted.
DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: U.S. Budget Proposal Aims to Support Troops, Families
DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: U.S. Budget Proposal Aims to Support Troops, Families
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 13, 2012: President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal has several provisions for service members, veterans and their families.
According to an Office of Management and Budget fact sheet released today, the budget request includes:
-- $8.5 billion in Defense Department base funding to support military families, from child care and education for military children to counseling and employment programs for the entire family.
-- More than $1 billion through the Education Department’s Impact Aid program to local school districts where a military base may increase the number of students and decrease the property tax base that funds the local schools. Districts educating more than 368,000 children from military families receive these funds.
-- Funding for a 1.7 percent pay raise for service members -- the full amount authorized by law -- as well as a variety of monthly special skill-based payments, enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses, and other benefits.
-- About $2.4 billion for programs serving wounded, ill and injured service members, with $747 million of that total to address traumatic brain injury and psychological health needs, such as support for recovery care coordinators and enhanced access to care.
-- $465 million for medical research specifically focused on psychological health, TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder.
-- $259 million for the Labor Department’s Veterans Employment and Training Service, and $8 million for the department’s transition assistance program and grants for employment services to veterans. The budget request ends the Veterans Workforce Investment Program, supporting service delivery innovations through the Workforce Innovation Fund instead. The expanded transition assistance program makes employment workshops more accessible to retiring Reserve and National Guard members, as well as spouses of separating service members.
-- Continuing grants under the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program at a level of $38 million.
-- Expanding entrepreneurship training for veterans and military families through the Small Business Administration’s National Veterans Entrepreneurship Training, a new $7 million program that will train up to 260,000 veterans annually.
-- $278 million for implementation of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act. New caregiver benefits and services include training adapted to the veterans' individual care needs, a direct stipend payment and health care and mental health services.
-- Almost $1.4 billion to provide services through the Veterans Affairs Department for homeless and at-risk veterans. These funds will combat veteran homelessness through collaborative partnerships with local governments, nonprofit organizations, and the Housing and Urban Development, Justice and Labor departments.
Earlier today, officials said defense leaders are fully committed to assisting service members and their families.
The DOD budget request provides $1.3 billion in funding for child care space for more than 200,000 children, as well as $1.4 billion for family support centers and morale, welfare and recreation programs. It also commits $2.7 billion for the education of more than 61,000 students at DOD Education Activity schools in 12 countries and more than 33,000 students in seven states, Puerto Rico and Guam.
The request includes more than $50 million to improve public school facilities on military installations.
Military construction funding is set at $9.1 billion, and family housing at $1.7 billion.
DTN News - US DEFENCE BUDGET CUTS: More Drones But 80,000 Fewer Troops
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 27, 2012: The United States is to increase its fleet of unmanned drones by nearly a third and rely more on small, specially trained ground units as part of a slimmed down military.
As part of massive cuts to its budget, the army plans to shed 80,000 soldiers over the next few years, defence secretary Leon Panetta announced yesterday.
But he added the enforced belt-tightening would be an opportunity to modernise the military, with a focus on technology and the use of agile, rapid-deployment combat teams.
The US would also be refocusing it attention towards China and the Pacific, while seeking strategic partnerships in areas in which it will be cutting its presence, such as Europe.
The rethink was prompted by the need to find $487 billion (£310bn) in spending cuts over the next decade. Mr Panetta conceded it meant slashing the number of soldiers in the army from about 570,000 to 490,000 over the next decade.
Speaking from the Pentagon, he said: “The military will be smaller and leaner. But it will be agile, flexible, rapidly deployable and technologically advanced. It will be a cutting-edge force”.
He said he refused to allow the “hollowing out” of the US’s military might, and that the new strategy would “emphasise special operation forces”.
The effectiveness of these small, dedicated units was seen in the assassination of terror chief Osama bin Laden last year and the rescue of a US aid worker and her Danish colleague from Somali pirates this week.
The envisaged refocusing on smaller rotational bases will be at the expense of larger military sites, with closures expected to take place as part of the budget cuts.
There will be more money available for technologically advanced weapons and measures to counter cyber-terrorism.
Mr Panetta did not say how many more drones would be developed under the plan, but an increase of about 30 per cent has previously been reported.
Any rise in the use of umanned aircraft is likely to be met with suspicion by those who believe that their use endangers innocent life.
Figures from the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism show CIA drones stuck Pakistan 75 times in 2011, causing up to 655 fatalities. The majority of those killed were alleged militants, but as many as 126 civilians may also have lost their lives, the figures suggest.
The shrinking of the US army was signalled earlier this month in comments made by president Barack Obama.
Outlining plans to trim the armed forces, he said the US was ”turning a page on a decade of war”, with the end of hostilities in Iraq and the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan.
http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2012/01/dtn-news-us-defence-budget-cuts-more.html
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