SequestrationU.S. arms sales, security partnerships to suffer as a result of sequestration cuts

One area where sequestration-mandated budget cuts will be felt sooner rather than later is U.S. for foreign militaries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Defense News reports that training and security partnership engagements with allies will likely decline as well as the Defense Department must now operate with a $46 billion cut in its budget for fiscal 2013.

Here is a list of the likely consequences for DoD of the budget cuts:

• Delays in approval of U.S. defense exports as a result of 800,000 civilian employees at DoD being furloughed. The furloughs would reduce the number of people processing foreign military sales. What exacerbates the situation is the fact that DoD does not have a system in place to prioritize which sales of what and to whom get handled first.
• Allies have already raised questions about how the budget cuts will affect F-35 Joint Strike Fighter purchases – and these are not just allies: eight countries made significant technology contributions to the development of the Lockheed Martin-built jet.
• Sequestration will cut about $500 million in security assistance, with the effects being felt by more than 150 countries.
• Of that $500 million, $300 million would be cut from foreign military financing, grants, or loans the United States awards countries so they can buy U.S.-made weapons.
• Another $20 million would be cut from international peacekeeping missions and $35 million from efforts to “counter terror, prevent loose and dangerous weapons from falling into the wrong hands and supervise the safe destruction of conventional weapons,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in a 11 February letter to Senate Appropriations Committee chairwoman Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland).
• DoD frequently participates in training and partnering missions in the United States and overseas, preparing American and allied forces to deal with humanitarian response  to special operations missions. “[Sequester] could impact not only our readiness, but, frankly, the role that we would play with regards to the readiness of NATO, as well,” said former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a 22 February press briefing.
• The fiscal 2013 sequestration-mandated budget cut for DoD is about $46 billion, but it is about $500 billion over ten years. DoD has said that if the cuts are made long-term, it would need to relook at its broad-ranging military strategy, which calls for a greater emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region. In 2012 the Pentagon conducted more than 170 exercises in the Pacific. “The Joint Chiefs are responsible for balancing global responsibilities, for looking at ways to do things sometimes directly ourselves, sometimes through partners in a region,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a 12 February Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “And I think what you’re hearing today is that our ability to do that is going to be called into doubt, given the effects of sequestration.”
• Last year, before the sequestration-related cuts went into effect, the Pentagon had already trimmed $487 billion in planned spending from its 10-year budget projections.