Gates reshapes the budget, can he change the culture?

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: DEFENSE WATCH

Defense Secretary Robert Gates' reshuffle of the Pentagon's $1.7 trillion weapons portfolio contained no major surprises. He had frequently voiced frustration about an "imbalance" in defense spending and a procurement system that operates in isolation from the "real requirements" of troops in the field.

"This is nothing new. I've been talking about this for 18 months," Gates said in an April 7 interview on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."

Gates' move to cancel a handful of big-ticket programs in order to fund immediate needs for the current wars will face tough resistance on Capitol Hill. But battling politicians' parochial interests may be relatively easy compared to the far more formidable challenge of changing the memes that have ruled the Pentagon for decades.

Nine years of massive budget increases have helped hide fundamental flaws in a military procurement system that was designed to defeat Cold War threats. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan exposed these weaknesses over the past several years. In the months following the invasion of Iraq, it became clear that troops didn't have enough armor, trucks and other essential gear while the Army continued to pour billions of dollars into a Future Combat Systems that the service dubbed its "top modernization priority." The Army eventually acquired the necessary gear for the war, but at a time of flat budgets, troops at war take precedence over FCS. Gates ordered the Army to dismantle the program.

There also has been a well-documented shortage of cargo and passenger helicopters in war zones. "Everywhere I go I hear about the need for more helicopters," Gates said at a Pentagon news conference. Nevertheless, the military services kept budgeting billions of dollars for next-generation aircraft that were not intended to fill those gaps. The Air Force was asked to give up its prized combat search-and-rescue helicopter and a new strategic bomber. Gates is now seeking to reallocate funds to acquire more transport and refueling aircraft for special operations forces and to train more helicopter pilots and maintenance crews.

Another significant gap in military capabilities has been ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) equipment to help U.S. forces hunt insurgents. This prompted Gates to create an ad hoc acquisition cell at the Pentagon to push more Predators and other ISR systems quickly to war zones. A similar effort was launched to acquire armored mine-resistant trucks that were...