Chuck Hagel on Defense Cuts - Pentagon Review (April 3, 2013)

Defense Department dot-gov News summarization:

[2013] sequester cuts and budget uncertainty have “led to far more abrupt and deeper reductions than were planned or expected,” he added.
“Now, DOD is grappling with the serious and immediate challenges of sequester -- which is forcing us to take as much as a $41 billion cut in this current fiscal year, and if it continues, will reduce projected defense spending by another $500 billion over the next decade,” the secretary said.
Much more hard work, difficult decisions and strategic prioritizing remain to be done, he said, and “deep political and institutional obstacles to necessary reforms will need to be engaged and overcome.”
The secretary said the department’s enduring mission -- defending the nation and advancing America’s strategic interests -- must be approached in the context of “unprecedented shifts in the world order, new global challenges and deep global fiscal uncertainty.”
The 21st-century security landscape is marked by the threat of violent extremism from weak states and ungoverned spaces in the Middle East and North Africa, Hagel said. Other security issues, he said, include the proliferation of weapons and materials; increasing access to advanced military technology among state and nonstate actors, risks of regional conflict that could draw in the United States, and “the debilitating and dangerous curse of human despair and poverty, as well as the uncertain implications of environmental degradation.”
Hagel said cyberattacks, “which barely registered as a threat a decade ago, have grown into a defining security challenge” which allows enemies to strike security, energy, economic and other critical infrastructure with the benefit of anonymity and distance.
All in all, Hagel said, the world is combustible and complex, and America’s responsibilities are enormous. The military’s role in meeting those responsibilities is essential, he said, but as part of a total government approach.
“Most of the pressing security challenges today have important political, economic, and cultural components, and do not necessarily lend themselves to being resolved by conventional military strength,” the secretary noted.
Defense leaders need time, flexibility, budget certainty and partnership with Congress to effectively explore new approaches to acquisition, personnel, and overhead costs, he said. Hagel emphasized that future strategic planning will emphasize DOD’s “inherent strengths” of leadership development, training, mobility and logistics, special operations, cyber, space, and research and development.
“The goal of the senior leadership of this department today is to learn from the miscalculations and mistakes of the past drawdowns, and make the right decisions that will sustain our military strength, advance our strategic interests, and protect our nation well into the future,” Hagel said.

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=119689