Plan to shrink Pentagon budget

The planned budget cuts are subject to congressional approval and timely troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

Al Jazeera English:

Proposal to save $78bn envisages cutting troop levels, abandoning new weapons programmes and restructuring bureaucracy.

The US is planning to cut its defence expenditure by $78bn in a move that includes freezing the Pentagon's budget by 2015, shrinking army and marine troop levels and abandoning plans for the acquisition of new weapons technology.

The budget cuts are subject to the approval of the US congress, and involve a further $100bn in cost saving measures.

The plan is aimed at helping the US government trim its spending, and, if passed, would be the first time the the Pentagon's budget has decreased since 1998. The current proposal calls for the Pentagon to freeze its budget by 2015, allowing for increases due to inflation.

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