Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Tuesday pledged to reform the way the Pentagon budgets its purchase of weaponry, while also stressing the importance of shifting U.S. military focus to Afghanistan. Gates, said in prepared statements during a testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, “we will not be able to ‘do everything, buy everything' ... I believe now is the time to take action.” “I believe that the FY [Fiscal Year] 2010 budget must make hard choices. Any necessary changes should avoid across-the-board adjustments, which inefficiently extend all programs,” Gates said. He said long-standing systemic problems had resulted in “the situation we face today, where a small set of expensive weapons programs has had repeated—and unacceptable—problems with requirements, schedule, cost and performance.” Gates said the department had already begun to purchase weapons at more efficient rates, and he would work to buy larger quantities of systems that are slightly better, instead of waiting for a nearly perfect system. The Pentagon also needed to ensure that services did not continue to add requirements once a weapons program began, and write contracts that gave incentives for good work. Gates, who served as defense secretary for the last two years of the administration of President George W. Bush, was allocated $580 billion for defense spending in fiscal year 2010. The budget is traditionally presented to Congress the first Monday in February, but Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman on Monday said the White House would probably not release a detailed plan for military spending until April.
