The Pentagon released a $496 billion defense budget request Tuesday and a planning road map that call for a smaller Army and retirement of OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopters — more than 25 of which are based at Wheeler Army Airfield.
Further impacts on Hawaii were not immediately clear, although more cuts are expected.
The active Army is scheduled for a massive reduction from its wartime high of 570,000 to between 440,000 and 450,000 soldiers — or even a smaller force of 420,000 if sequestration persists into 2016.
The U.S. military will modernize but become smaller over the next five years, and will no longer be sized to conduct large-scale stability operations in foreign countries, the new Quadrennial Defense Review said.
The QDR, military strategy revised every four years, was released in conjunction with the budget request.
The "fiscal constraints" that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said "cannot be ignored" have accompanied renewed questioning about the United States’ ability to conduct the so-called "pivot" or "re-balance" to the Asia-Pacific.
Katrina McFarland, assistant secretary of defense for acquisition, added to the doubts Tuesday when she said, "Right now the pivot is being looked at again because candidly it can’t happen," the website Military.com reported.
Budget constraints and other worldwide commitments are getting in the way of that re-balance.
McFarland’s remarks, made at an Air Force forum, were later followed by some backtracking and a clarification in which she said, "The re-balance to Asia can and will continue," Military.com said.
Even the head of Pacific Air Forces questioned the follow-through on the stated goal of shifting more military might to the Pacific.
Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, whose headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, was asked in a recent question-and-answer piece in Defense News whether resources are being committed to the region.
"I would say that the resources have not followed the comment of re-balance into the Pacific," he said.
One reason had to do with ongoing operations in the Middle East.
"And the other reason is sequestration and the cuts in defense make it actually incredibly hard to find places to pivot money to the Pacific," Carlisle was quoted as saying.
Jim Guzior, a spokesman for U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter, said because the requested budget has not been approved, "we cannot speculate on cuts to Hawaii soldiers at this time."
"However, all of the cuts being made throughout the Army are prudent as they preserve the health and wholeness of the force for the long term," Guzior said in an email. "Given (the) realities of constrained budgets, the Army must adapt, innovate and make difficult decisions impacting the total force."
Guzior said the budget request includes the retirement of the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior scout helicopter fleet in Hawaii.
"Army units on the island have been preparing for multiple outcomes as this transition plan was being developed and continues in the budget request," Guzior said. The Army also flies Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters out of Wheeler.
The Defense Department is absorbing a 10-year, $487 billion cut in spending that began in fiscal 2012, and sequestration cuts of about $50 billion annually. Legislation in 2013 relieved some of that budget pressure, but sequestration cuts are to resume in 2016.
At the end of fiscal 2013, the Navy’s average global presence was down about 10 percent, with fewer ships patrolling the seas. Even with the cuts, Pentagon Comptroller Robert F. Hale tried to put the spending in perspective.
"We’re spending half a trillion dollars on defense," Hale said.
Added Hale, "I mean, we should be able to provide a reasonable level of defense (with that spending), and I believe we can, though there will be some more risks in certain missions."
The 2014 QDR said the Pentagon is identifying "new presence paradigms," including potentially positioning additional forward deployed Navy forces in critical areas.
The QDR prioritizes defending the homeland, building security globally, and preparing to win decisively in war.
"No strategy or budget is risk-free. Even the largest defense budgets have limits — as does our knowledge and ability to predict the future," Hagel said Tuesday. "But the strategy articulated by the QDR is one that department leaders and I believe is the right strategy given the reality we face."
