ADDITIONAL PROPOSALS

ADDITIONAL PROPOSALS

Among other changes Hagel proposed:

The active-duty Army would shrink from today’s 522,000 soldiers to between 440,000 and 450,000 — the smallest number since 1940 when the nation was gearing up to enter World War II. The Army is scheduled to be reduced to 490,000.

The Army National Guard would drop from 355,000 soldiers to 335,000 by 2017, and the Army Reserve would drop by 10,000, to 195,000. The National Guard also would send its Apache attack helicopters to the active-duty Army in exchange for Black Hawk helicopters.

The Marine Corps would shrink from 190,000 to 182,000.

The Navy would keep its 11 aircraft carriers but “lay up,” or temporarily remove from active service, 11 of its 22 cruisers while they are modernized. The Navy would reduce from 52 to 32 its purchase of littoral combat ships, which are smaller vessels designed to operate closer to shore.

The Air Force would retire its fleet of A-10 “Warthog” tank-killer planes for an estimated savings of $3.5 billion over five years.

Source: Associated Press