Critics say DoD spending more, getting less

[unhappycamper]

Critics say DoD spending more, getting less
By Antonie Boessenkool - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 20, 2009 13:19:32 EST

The Defense Department is spending more money for less capability and fewer planes, Army divisions and combat ships compared with past years, and spending with the wrong focus, according to defense experts who spoke at an event hosted by the Project on Government Oversight on Thursday.

DoD now is spending more on defense in inflation-adjusted dollars than at any time since the end of World War II, including periods of spending highs during wars in Korea and Vietnam and the weapon build up under the Reagan administration, said Winslow Wheeler, citing DoD data.

Wheeler is an analyst at the Center for Defense Information and veteran of defense issues at the Government Accountability Office and Congress.

“The wars that we’re fighting, in terms of people deployed, are extremely modest, far fewer than Vietnam, far fewer than Korea,” Wheeler said.

While the Army budget is at its highest in inflation-adjusted terms since 1946, the number of Army division equivalents has fallen from a high of 28 in 1953 to 11 in 2008, according to data Wheeler presented. The number of active Navy combat ships has fallen from more than 1,000 in 1946 to less than 400 today while the Navy budget has trended upward — although it’s currently lower than high points during the Korean War and the Reagan administration.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/military_dod_procurement_022009/%2e