Domenici-Rivlin Panel Target Missile Defense, Satellite Imagery for Cuts

WASHINGTON — As part of a proposal to reduce the U.S. government’s soaring debt, the nation should freeze the Pentagon’s budget, slash its missile defense spending by $5 billion a year and transition to less expensive satellite imagery, a bipartisan debt reduction panel recommended Nov. 17.

Led by retired U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici — the former Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee — and Alice Rivlin, who ran the White House Office of Management and Budget under then-President Bill Clinton, the panel warns that the United States risks harming its national security unless it overhauls its spending and taxation practices.

The Domenici-Rivlin panel, which was organized by a think tank here called the Bipartisan Policy Center recommended capping defense spending at 2011 levels for five years and linking defense budget growth to growth in the U.S. gross domestic product thereafter, which would result in a savings of $1.1 trillion through 2020.

With military retirement and health care costs continuing to rise, capping the defense budget will require the Pentagon to reduce its force structure and scale back its procurement and research budgets, the report said. The total active-duty military force would be reduced from 1.48 million to 1.21 million, scaling back the growth that resulted from the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and reducing the U.S. footprint in Western Europe and Asia, the report said.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates already has begun canceling and deferring major hardware procurement programs in an effort to shave $100 billion from the defense budget over the next five years. The task force recommended further cuts.

The United States currently spends about $10 billion a year on ballistic missile defense research and development programs. The threat of ballistic missile attacks to the United States has not materialized as quickly as once thought, and that budget could be adequately reduced to some $5 billion a year, the report said. The task force also recommended canceling the Medium Extended Air Defense System that the United States is developing with Italy and Germany and canceling the Army’s JLENS surveillance blimp. Also targeted for termination are the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and the F-35 fighter jet.

The task force also calls for maintaining the United States’ intelligence capabilities but at a reduced cost by consolidating agencies and information technology centers. It also called for the transition to “less expensive satellite imagery,” though it did not provide specifics.

The United States for decades has relied on very large and expensive optical spy satellites for strategic intelligence purposes. In the last decade many commercial optical imaging satellites have been launched, including those built by two companies subsidized by the U.S. government, DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colo., and GeoEye of Dulles, Va.

The White House in 2009 decided on a future path for satellite imagery that includes both national and commercial systems. The government plans to contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver to build two large, exquisite-class imaging satellites based on existing designs. The government recently contracted with DigitalGlobe and GeoEye and the purchase of the imagery equivalent to two commercial imaging satellites. DigitalGlobe and GeoEye each were recently awarded multibillion dollar contracts to continue providing commercial satellite imagery to the government for as long as 10 years.