U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter (Reuters / Yuri Gripas) / Reuters
Austin Wright, Politico: Pentagon in open brawl over spending priorities
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is facing an open revolt in his own ranks.
A brawl has broken out at the top rungs of the Pentagon over how to prepare the military for long-term threats, in a rare public fight that pits leaders of the military branches against Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
Carter wants to use the Pentagon’s upcoming, approximately $580 billion budget request to solidify the Obama administration’s goals of investing in more advanced weapons such as next-generation fighters and submarines, and high-demand skills such as cyber warfare.
But he is butting heads with the Navy’s leadership and facing open skepticism from the man in line to be Army secretary, who have disagreed with their boss in recent days over key aspects of the administration’s plans. One admiral even mocked critics of a warship program that Carter is trying to scale back.
Carter is getting pushback from multiple quarters.
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WNU Editor: This battle over the budget and Pentagon priorities is not going to end soon. This also explains the announcement yesterday that U.S. Secretary of Defense Carter was going to preview the Pentagon's fiscal 2017 budget request before sending it to Congress .... Pentagon chief to preview fiscal 2017 budget on Feb. 2: sources (Reuters). The Defense Secretary wants everyone to know what he is going to propose before Congress gets the official request from the Defense Secretary/White House on what they want .... and he wants to temper all criticisms before that happens.