The Change Mariner

Continued Defense Realignment

KRT Wire:

The Pentagon is gearing up for a sweeping round of base closures that could shutter as many as one-fourth of the country's 425 military installations over the next few years.

Defense officials and analysts say the move next year would save billions of dollars that the armed services are spending every year to maintain obsolete and unneeded facilities - money they say could be better spent on modernizing military hardware and improving the quality of life for America's 1.4 million active-duty servicemen and women.

Even though the $401 billion defense budget is at an all-time high, the push comes as U.S. troops are already stretched thin fighting a guerrilla insurgency in Iraq, tracking down al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and keeping a lid on potential hot spots such as the Korean peninsula.

While some lawmakers want to increase the size of the Army by as many as 40,000 troops, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld instead is plowing ahead with plans to transform the armed services into a leaner and more lethal force outfitted with a new generation of advanced weapons, communications gear and other equipment.With so many competing priorities, defense officials and many analysts say, the stakes involved in a new round of base closures couldn't be higher.

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