PREVIEW: Gates to unveil major shake-up of US defence spending

Apr 4, 2009, 7:39 GMT

Washington - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates will on Monday announce what Pentagon officials are describing as a major shift in the US military's spending priorities.

Gates will be detailing the Defence Department's much-anticipated 2010 budget, the first outline since President Barack Obama took office in January, the Pentagon announced Friday.

The defence secretary is expected to announce the cancellation or cutbacks of a series of major weapons programmes. The lucrative defence sector has been buzzing for weeks about which costly systems might get the axe, as the department looks to streamline its budget and retool the military for new types of combat.

Obama has said he wants to cut spending on some of the large and expensive weapons systems considered relics of the Cold War, as the military shifts to counter-insurgency strategies that dominate today's global conflicts.

Gates could also announce a cutback of a US missile-defence system that has strained US relations with Europe and Russia. Obama has suggested he may back off the plans initiated by former president George W Bush to place a missile-defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Obama earlier this year sent a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggesting the system might not be needed if Iran - with added Russian pressure - was prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Monday's budget announcement will mark a 'fundamental shift in direction' by the administration, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell was quoted by US media as saying on Friday.

The results are being closely watched by US lawmakers, who will be briefed on the decisions by Gates Monday morning. The defence secretary will then hold a news conference in the afternoon.

Among other programmes that could be slashed is the Air Force's F- 22 Raptor, which cost 140 million dollars each and are considered one of the world's most advanced fighter jets.

Critics argue the fighter has little value in the US military's fight against terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. But any cuts to the F-22 could draw rebukes from congressional lawmakers, who argue that stopping production would cost thousands of jobs during the country's worst recession in decades.

The defence community is also awaiting a decision on an Air Force refuelling tanker that has been the subject of a long-running dispute between the United States and Europe.

A 35-billion-dollar contract to build the next generation of tankers was surprisingly awarded last year to a joint bid by US firm Northrop Grumman and European planemaker EADS. But Gates reopened the bidding process after complaints of irregularities by US giant Boeing.

In September, Gates decided to postpone any decision on the tanker contract until the Obama administration took office. He argued the competition had become too politically charged to be completed during Bush's final months in the White House.

Obama in February proposed a 4-per-cent increase in defence spending as part of an outline of his full 2010 budget. He plans to allocate 533.7 billion dollars to the Pentagon, plus an additional 130 billion dollars for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.