Budget Challenges

Even before Greenert took command, the nation remained in a deep economic crisis, one that is threatening to cut military budgets as Congress searches for a way to reduce spending throughout the government.

Though in his first fleet message he promised to “be judicious with our resources,” the full impact of the expected budget cuts had yet to be seen as 2011 ended, though there was no shortage of speculation as to what the impact of future budget cuts might be for the Navy.

“The nation cannot have a strong defense without a strong economy; therefore I view the deficit crisis and corresponding deep cuts in defense as one of the most significant challenges to the entire national security community,” he said. “In light of budget realities, our acquisition programs will face increasing pressure; therefore, it is more important than ever to meticulously review requirements throughout the acquisition process.”

The Navy has yet to reveal much of what it will do to cut costs beyond 2011, saying only that they’ll show more of their cards in the fiscal 2013 budget that will be released in early February 2012.

But independent studies published late in 2011 are stating the Navy should consider cutting everything from older cruisers and submarines from the fleet, to permanently dropping down to 10 or even nine aircraft carriers – though current law requires the Navy to maintain 11.

Both Greenert and his boss, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, have said almost everything is at least on the table in the budget crisis that has Congress and the Department of Defense looking to cut billions from the defense budget over the next decade.

“Internal to Navy, we will continue ongoing efforts to eliminate redundant processes, overhead, and costly infrastructures, as well as identify and adopt business best practices as standards for all,” Greenert wrote.

 

Personnel Issues

In late 2010, the then-chief of Naval Personnel said the Navy needed at least 325,000 sailors to complete its assigned missions.

Still, the service started calendar year 2011 with 328,500 sailors on the rolls, already less than the 328,700 required by law.

As the year ended, the Navy was again ahead of the manpower curve with an end strength of nearly 324,000, well under the 325,700 mandated by Congress at the end of fiscal 2012.

Though the fiscal 2012 budget, signed into law on Dec. 31, 2011, projects the Navy’s end strength to drop to 319,000 in 2015, Greenert told Congress the actual size of the Navy’s future force was still being debated.

“As we have yet to determine our end strength levels for FY 2013 and beyond, it is too early to determine our required end strength target or assess methods we might use, should a reduction be necessary,” he said in July. Since the post-Cold War drawdown began in 1990, the enlisted force has taken the brunt of the cuts.

Greenert has hinted that he expects the officer corps to get trimmed more in the future, as he’s lent his support to a number of requests in the 2012 budget that would give the Navy a greater ability to entice officers to retire, as well as give the service greater ability to cut officers if efforts to send them home voluntarily fall short.

The Navy has yet to reveal much of what it will do to cut costs beyond 2011, saying only that they’ll show more of their cards in the fiscal 2013 budget that will be released in early February 2012.

What’s clear is the Navy and the other services have positioned themselves to cut their forces if necessary, getting Congress to reinstate 15-year retirements and extend the authority to use voluntary separation pay in the 2012 budget.

The Navy also was able to get Congress to create a new Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay designed to entice no more than 675 officers with 20 to 29 years of service with bonuses of up to 12 months of basic pay if they retire.

But even with all those voluntary enticements, Congress also gave the Navy authority to review officers for early retirement more than once in five years, as allowed in current policy.

This enhanced early retirement authority will be necessary, officials say, because the service’s fiscal 2012 budget calls cutting the number of years a captain can stay on active duty from 30 to 27, and for commanders, the number would drop from 28 to 25 years.

“Although Navy prefers to utilize voluntary force-shaping methods before resorting to use of involuntary selective early retirement,” Greenert told Congress, “we have determined that its employment will be necessary in [fiscal] 12 and beyond as Navy transforms to meet future warfighting requirements.”