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April 7, 2009

Gates Calls for Pentagon to Spend More on Counterinsurgency
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This comes as Defense Secretary Robert Gates is requesting a large
increase in funding to build unmanned drones like the Predator. Gates
wants to increase spending on unmanned drones by 127 percent over a year
ago. On Monday, Gates proposed making sweeping changes to the military
budget by halting several Cold War era projects, including the F-22
stealth fighter, while increasing spending on counterinsurgency and
fighting guerrilla wars.

Robert Gates: “There’s broad agreement on the need for acquisition and
contracting reform in the Department of Defense. There have been enough
studies, enough hand-wringing, enough rhetoric. Now is the time for
action.”

As part of his plan, Robert Gates proposed increasing the size of the
Pentagon’s Special Forces by five percent. Gates also proposed reducing
the Pentagon’s dependence on private contractors by hiring 30,000 new
civil servants over the next five years to replace contractors. Overall,
Gates wants Congress to spend $664 billion on the Pentagon, including
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a $9 billion increase over the
current budget.



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